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She appears to him for the first time when he’s five years old.
With his attendants distracted, Satoru slips away from them, desperate to be a child. Lessons on Jujutsu and history are already being forced into his head, and he’s rarely left alone. There’s always someone watching him, hovering over him, pandering after him. The attention is cloying and exhausting. Being pampered isn’t as fun as people think it is, at least not when they’re as important as he is.
He’s just a boy, but to everyone else, especially the members of his clan, he’s the Six Eyes sorcerer. The famed technique hasn’t been born alongside Limitless in centuries. He’s special, but he sometimes he wishes he wasn’t.
While other children in the Gojo clan are allowed to play around, he’s shuttled off to opposite corners of the estate for his lessons. It will take him years to master both Limitless and Six Eyes, even more so to control his massive amount of cursed energy. He can’t goof off like the other kids. It’s too dangerous. He must learn, so while he’s given toys after the fact, he’s left to play alone at night.
It’s no wonder that he darts off the first second he’s given the chance.
As much as he longs to go outside – run barefoot in the grass, climb the tall trees that frame the building, roll around in the dirt – he knows it’s the first place they’ll search for him. Yes, he’s only five, but he’s terribly clever. He has to be with innate cursed techniques like his. Instead, he wanders deep into the bowels of the Gojo clan estate, where priceless artifacts and cursed weapons are safely hidden, until he finds himself in a hall that looks as if it’s been untouched for ages.
It’s only thanks to his Six Eyes that he’s able to see anything, though he can’t keep it activated for long without giving himself a headache, so it isn’t a surprise when he finally bumps into a wall.
Coughing up dust, Satoru feels around the wall, only to pause when he realizes he’s touching a door. Something smudges under his palm and fingers, and he activates his Six Eyes just long enough to see black ink on his hand. He furrows his brow. This place looks nearly abandoned, so why is the ink wet? What looks like an old incantation is written on the door, but he can’t read it, the text from a forgotten past.
Weird, he thinks, right before something shimmers in the air around him and an oil lamp bursts to life.
A shiver runs up his spine, and he spins around fast, eyes lit up with a power he can’t control, only to freeze.
There, standing behind him, is a girl not much older than him.
Satoru tilts his head. “Oh. Hello.”
The girl doesn’t say anything at first, just watches him with expressionless eyes. He stares back.
She’s a normal-looking girl, he decides. The yukata she’s wearing isn’t anything special, but it hangs loosely on her body, like it’s a size too big. She has thick, shiny black hair that hangs down the middle of her back. Her eyes are the color of honey, something he likes poured into his tea. Her skin looks strangely pale, but then again, if she’s down here in this basement, she probably doesn’t get a lot of sun.
What stands out, though, is the scar bridging across half her face. While she looks young, the wound looks old.
A small smile tugs at her lips, and she speaks for the first time, her voice a breath above a whisper. “Hello.”
*
His pockets are laden with fruit as he makes his way through the maze-like basement. He’s familiar with it now, could probably run to the end with his eyes blindfolded, but the trip isn’t any less exciting than the first time. How he’s managed to keep this a secret for so long is a mystery, especially with the way everyone fawns over him, but now that he’s older, he’s given a bit more freedom.
Because at seven years old, Satoru is already the strongest sorcerer in the Gojo clan.
Once he’s in the main room, he stops at the doorway and calls out, “Utahime!”
She appears a few seconds later through one of the doors, but it’s hard to tell if she walks through it or through it, more a specter than a girl.
“It’s been a while,” she murmurs.
“I know.” He pulls out an apple from his pocket. “I brought gifts!”
Utahime gives him a smile, but there’s a strange twist to it. They both know fruit means very little to her when she’s not human.
It didn’t take Satoru long to realize that Utahime wasn’t exactly alive. Even when he was five, he was capable of reading cursed energy better than most adult sorcerers. Once he realized what she was, he almost ran away, but she didn’t move to attack him, and his curiosity got the better of him.
Utahime is a cursed spirit.
But what is his clan doing with a cursed spirit in their basement? It doesn’t make any sense. As sorcerers, they’re taught that cursed spirits are the enemy and need to be exorcised immediately. The majority of them aren’t malicious in the same vein as humans. They’re capable of horrific acts, but it’s rarely purposeful, save for some Special Grades.
And yet, here is Utahime, proof of something he doesn’t understand. She should’ve been erased, but instead, she’s living under the floors he slept on. There is no way the higher members of his clan aren’t aware of her presence. The cursed seals lining the walls were written by someone, certainly not her, and they were renewed over the years as well, strengthened before they could weaken and become useless.
His clan is keeping her here, but either she doesn’t know why or she won’t tell him.
No matter how hard he tries to read her, he can’t gauge her level of cursed energy. He’s much stronger than her, as far as he can tell, but he noticed there are times when her cursed energy fluctuates. Usually, it happens when a strong emotion slips out, from either one of them. For a moment, she’s more real, more solid, and her cursed energy spikes with it – but then she seems to remember herself and returns to a flat level.
Is it on purpose? Is she trying to pretend she's weaker than she is? Perhaps so, but that doesn’t stop him from sneaking off to visit her, because there’s one thing he knows for sure.
She’s lonely, the same as him.
They spend an hour playing games – rounds of hide and seek, go, and a few different card games – until both of them are restless. He's getting too old for this. He wants to go out, to explore, and so does she. She can't though. Every time he leaves, she's left to linger just behind the threshold of the door, watching him with thinly concealed hopelessness.
Left behind. Trapped.
When the hour comes to an end, Satoru is reluctant to leave, but he can’t stay here long. People will begin to wonder, and he doesn’t need them asking questions. It won’t end well, not when he knows he’s not meant to be here. He was never meant to find Utahime. She’s a stain on his clan when he’s fated to cleanse the world.
“I wish I could take you with me,” Satoru mumbles.
Utahime scrapes a line in the dirt with her toes. “Me too.”
He leaves, but the simmering thrum of her cursed energy pulses behind the door. A curse’s energy is a disgusting miasma of negativity that should repulse him. Even other sorcerers’ cursed energy tends to make him wrinkle his nose in distaste. He doesn’t like any of it touching him, using his control over Infinity to shield him. However, there’s something about Utahime’s cursed energy that is almost…pleasant.
It’s a lie, of course, a trick meant to lull him into a false sense of security, especially when he’s aware of the many targets on his back.
Still, as he lies on his futon, passing a ball of cursed energy back and forth between his palms, he can’t help but wonder what it would feel like to touch hers just once.
*
Satoru is nine years old when he makes his first big mistake.
As if secretly befriending a curse locked in his clan’s basement wasn’t bad enough.
The loneliness of his position has already stretched into something impossible that he struggles to stomach. His attendants and tutors noticed, which they tried to solve by bringing over other clan children near his age, but he took an immediate dislike to most of them. They’re all spoiled, including him, though only a few experience the intense training in Jujutsu as he does, but none of them come close to him. Not even Naoya, the only one of Zen’in Naobito’s children to inherit his cursed technique, is technically the heir of his clan.
It's this oppressive and inescapable loneliness that drives him to the basement, right into Utahime’s waiting arms, but first, he has some questions, ones he knows she doesn’t want to answer.
“Why are you here?” Satoru asks.
It isn’t the first time he’s asked her this, not by a long shot. Just like before, she turns away, distancing herself from him. It’s more like floating than walking, her feet barely touching the ground. He can do that too, with his Infinity, but he’s not playing one of their games right now.
“You can tell me,” Satoru insists, trying for the same gentle tone his caregivers use on him sometimes. “Did you do something bad?”
“No,” Utahime snaps, rearing on him. It’s not the furious scowl that flashes across her face that surprises him so much as the burst of cursed energy. It’s much stronger than before, just for a brief moment, and he realizes very quickly that she’s been hiding how strong she is.
She realizes it as well, folding her arms across her chest and folding in on herself.
He wants to reach out and touch her, but he doesn’t, keeping his distance as usual. It’s hard with her, though he knows it shouldn’t be. Even if she looks like a girl his age, she is anything but that. She’s a monster, and not just because of the scar streaked across her face. She’s closing in, putting up the walls again, making herself smaller before him. He recognizes the signs immediately.
She’s frightened of him. Then again, most curses are.
So Satoru tries a different approach and steps forward. “I want to take you out of here.”
Her eyes snap up to meet his, almost human, fear and confusion mixing together. She’s very good at this. Other people, even sorcerers, might be tricked by her appearance, but he can read her cursed energy like a book.
That doesn’t stop him from coming up with a foolish daydream.
“But I gotta know why my clan bound you here,” Satoru continues. “It has to be for a reason.”
Due to the nature of his cursed techniques, Satoru was encouraged to pore through all the documents, texts, scrolls, and books in his clan’s library. Anything that can help him learn about Six Eyes is important, especially since no one has been born with both Six Eyes and Limitless in four hundred years. No one, not even the strongest of his tutors, could properly teach him his abilities, forcing him to figure most of it out on his own. That gave him an ample amount of time to read and do research.
His teachers and attendants never question his interest in curses, especially special grades, because it’s important for him to understand the enemy. He needs to know what makes curses tick, their weaknesses and strengths, their motives and habits, their creation and destruction. His teachers applaud his curiosity, always remarking on his high intelligence and keen interest to learn.
There’s more to it, of course, but it’s an easy facade to hide behind.
So far, however, nothing of what he’s found has anything to do with Utahime. There are no mentions of her at all, though he’s noticed that some scrolls seem to be missing the end and pages of journals have been torn out. Bits of his own family history have been destroyed, but for what reason? What did someone from his clan’s past not want their future descendants to know?
He was never meant to find out about Utahime. That much he’s sure of. So what else are they hiding?
Satoru plops down onto the ground and crosses his legs. “So, who are you? Were you always a curse?”
After a moment of hesitation, Utahime sits down across from him. “No, I was a sorcerer.”
That isn’t too surprising. Although it’s less likely for sorcerers to become curses because of their control over their abilities, it can happen, if they’re killed by a non-sorcerer – or if they’re purposely cursed. Usually, that didn’t happen unless they did something terrible. There’s one more way, of course, for a sorcerer to become a curse, though no one talks about it.
If a sorcerer corrupts their soul beyond repair.
It’s hard to see Utahime doing that, especially when she looks like an innocent girl his age and she’s been his only source of companionship for years, but curses are the embodiment of bad things. Whether it was her sin or another’s, she became a curse for a reason.
“What happened?” Satoru asks.
“I was bound here and cursed,” Utahime says warily, “by one of your ancestors.” He frowns, but the next thing she says causes his blood to freeze. “He was a Six Eyes user like you.”
“Why?”
Utahime tilts her gaze upward to look at the ceiling as if she can pierce through it to see the sky. He wonders how long it’s been since she’s seen it. Bringing pictures for her to look through seems too cruel. She’s quiet for a while, but it doesn’t feel like she’s avoiding the question, more like she’s trying to decide how much she can tell him. Is there a condition in her binding that doesn’t allow her to talk freely? Binding Vows can be tricky.
“Because,” she finally says, dropping her eyes to meet his, “I wanted to be free.”
*
His entire body is thrumming with barely restrained energy as he rushes down the stairs. When he bursts into the room and calls out for her, Utahime doesn’t appear right away. Sometimes, it takes more coaxing than usual to convince her to show up, but she always does in the end. Loneliness will always win, and even as a curse, she can’t help but long for something more than the darkness that surrounds her.
Eventually, Utahime comes to him, stepping out of the shadows and into the dim light. “You look excited.”
“I figured it out!” Satoru exclaims.
“Figured what out?”
“How to get you out of here!”
Utahime folds her arms across her chest. “And how are you going to do that? I’ve been trapped down here for–”
For centuries, he knows. If the person to seal her in this tomb underneath his clan’s estate was a Six Eyes user, she had to have been down here for at least four hundred years, if not longer, if it was the one before him. Most of the missing records in his clan’s library did seem to be from that time.
“You were cursed to stay here, right?” Satoru says. “But what if we did something stronger than a curse?”
Utahime huffs. “What is stronger than a centuries-old curse formed by a fully fledged special grade sorcerer?”
“A Binding Vow,” Satoru replies.
“You’re not strong enough to counter the curse–”
“The Six Eyes user that cursed you,” Satoru cuts in, “did he curse you to this place – or to him?”
Utahime opens her mouth, then closes it. There’s a moment when she can see the gears turning in her head. She’s so cognizant and intelligent for a curse. Definitely a special grade. If she was a strong sorcerer when she was alive, it makes sense that she would be strong as a curse. Sorcerers that return as curses always come back stronger.
“This room is filled with a lot of things tied to the Gojo clan,” Satoru continues, “but if they only belonged to the sorcerer that cursed you, then the curse is tied to him.” He straightens up and puts on a confident smile. “It’s an old curse though, so a fresh Binding Vow with another strong sorcerer could write over it.”
Narrowing her eyes, Utahime says, “And that’s you? You’re a child.”
“And I’m already the strongest sorcerer of my time,” Satoru shot back.
It’s hard. For a moment, something shimmers underneath Utahime’s skin, once again reminding him that she’s not a kid like him. Even then though, he’s rarely had the opportunity to feel like a child either. For as long as he can remember, he’s had lesson upon lesson drilled into his head. He doesn’t remember a time playing games and goofing off like other kids. The truth is, he has more in common with Utahime than he does with most kids his age.
“What kind of Binding Vow?” Utahime asks, eyeing him sideways.
“Well, he probably bound you to him when he was the head of the Gojo clan,” Satoru says thoughtfully. “I’m not the head yet, but I’m going to be, so I should be able to transfer the bond to me.”
A little smile plays at her lips. “Big words for a child of ten.”
“You’re the one still playing as a kid,” Satoru points out.
Utahime tilts her head. “I’m not the one playing.”
Satoru furrows his brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That’s a part of the curse,” Utahime tells him in a flat voice more reminiscent of an emotionless curse. “I take on the image of whatever you want me to look like.”
Her words are like a punch to the gut, a blow he was unprepared to take when it’s been a while since he’s been physically hit by anything. She looks like this…because of him? Curses can take on many forms. Usually, it has something to do with either how they died, who they were in life, or how they were created. None of them are pretty , not like her. It makes sense though, now that he thinks about it. He was lonely. He wanted a companion.
And so he created her in the image of what he wanted – a young girl his age to be his friend.
“But what about…?” He touches his cheek.
Utahime’s fingers brush over the scar that spans across half her face. “He gave it to me. It’s the one thing I can’t change.” Her lips twist into a frown. “He hated it. He blamed me – said I wouldn’t get rid of it on purpose – but I hate it too.”
Before Utahime can devolve into self-loathing, Satoru snatches her wrist, startling her still. It’s not the first time he’s touched her, but it’s the first time he’s dropped Infinity to do it. Immediately, both of them can feel the difference, a line of energy bolting between them. She’s warmer than he expected, but then again, he’s never actually touched a curse before. Was her warmth normal, or was it just her?
Her eyes slide up his hand to meet his, and his breath catches in his throat.
Honey brown, soft, warm. They’re beautiful.
She takes a step back, letting his hand fall away from her, and clears her throat. “So what? We perform a Binding Vow so that I’m bound to you and not…this place? Not him?”
He shrugs. “I guess.”
“And what does that mean?” Utahime presses. “I can leave here, but only if you say so?”
“Well…” He gives her something of a helpless look. “You’re a curse. I can’t just let you run around.” When she scoffs and turns away from him, he’s quick to add, “Because you’ll be exorcised! You were bound here for a reason, and I can’t figure out why, but if someone realizes I let you out, they’ll want to kill you.”
And he can’t let that happen. That’s the one thing that frightens him the most – not Utahime escaping, not her being trapped down here, not being alone, but her being taken away from him forever. At least if she was bound here, he would know where to find her – he could visit her as always – but if she was exorcised, he would never be able to see her again. That terrifies him on a level he doesn’t understand. He’s never been scared before, not truly, even with a few attempts on his life under his belt.
“If you're making a Binding Vow with me, then you’re protected,” Satoru tells her. “I know it’s not… It’s still kind of lame, but you can come out at least. That’s good, right?”
Utahime eyes him for a moment. “You’re too smart for your age.”
He’s so pleased with himself that he doesn’t realize how much of a foolish mistake this is. When he smiles, Utahime softens, all girlish childlike and sweet. Even a little blush tints her cheeks. She’s perfect, absolutely everything he could dream of, just for him. Even if he can’t forget the fact that she’s a curse, he forgets that she looks like this because it’s what he wants. He’s still a spoiled, selfish child with too much power and potential. It doesn’t occur to ask him what she wants.
*
The first time Utahime steps out of the confines of the basement, he has to hold her hand because she’s shaking so much. She doesn’t believe it’ll work, even with the Binding Vow sealing them together like a knitted scarf, so he grabs her hand and drags her over the barrier. She prepares herself for pain, steeling herself for the worst, but the consequential strike never happens. She blinks, her body slowly relaxing, until reality hits her.
She crossed the barrier that kept her captive for centuries, all because of a boy barely over ten.
Utahime drops to her knees, shaking so violently that he’s terrified it didn’t work.
“Are you–?”
“I’m free,” she croaks. “I’m free.”
Well, not entirely. Surely, she would be able to feel the thin thread connecting them, but that was nothing compared to the prison she’d been trapped in for so long. Tears prick at her eyes, real tears, making him frantic. He didn’t expect her to cry. She’s a curse. He didn’t know they were capable of crying. She pulls her hand away from him so she can hide her face, intense sobs wracking her body.
All Satoru can do is gawk at her. If she’s crying just from crossing over the threshold, how is she going to react when she finally sees the sky?
After she manages to gather herself, Satoru tugs her back to her feet. “You have to stay close – and hidden.”
Utahime nods. She’s obedient, quick to listen, afraid. He can sense the way her cursed energy flutters nervously like a hummingbird. With her hand in his, he guides her up the many stairs, up and up and up, until a hint of sunlight peeks from the cracks. She sucks in a gasp, hesitating for a moment, but then he shoves open a door and–
“Gojo-sama!”
“Hide!” he hisses, biting back a vicious wave of anger. Can she not enjoy her first moment in the sun?
Against all odds, though it must hurt her, Utahime vanishes in the blink of an eye. He doesn’t know where she goes – maybe back under the grounds, maybe the stairs, maybe somewhere else, unable to drift too far from him – but when he glances behind him, he can’t find her. One of his teachers, a man named Chino, bears down upon him, a firm expression of disapproval fixed upon his face, but Satoru catches a hint of fear behind his eyes.
“What were you doing?” Chino demands. “We’ve been searching everywhere for you for thirty minutes!”
Satoru shrugs. “Just exploring. I was bored.”
Chino glances at the door behind him, then gives him a strange look. He’s clearly on edge, his cursed energy rattling under the surface. Out of all his teachers, Chino has the most cursed energy, though he doesn’t come close to Satoru’s vast amount. Still, there’s something odd about the way Chino looks at him now, like he doesn’t want to look at him. Does it have to do with the basement? But why would he know anything about what lies beneath when he’s just a third cousin?
“Come,” Chino finally says, turning on his heels. “You have lessons.”
It takes everything in Satoru not to drag his feet. He was hoping to have more time to wander around – he wanted to give Utahime the chance to explore – but binded to him as she is now, she can’t go anywhere. It frustrates him, but he bites his tongue for once as he follows his teacher. At least they’re not going to one of the rooms for a more formal educational lesson. Instead, they walk outside, but he’s surprised when they don’t head in the direction of the training grounds.
“Where are we going?” Satoru asks.
“Your uncle wants you to train with your techniques more,” Chino explains, “but you still lack control, so we’ll need to step off the grounds to avoid collateral damage.”
Satoru can’t help but pout and kick a rock. He doesn’t lack control so much as he doesn’t care for restraint. His Limitless techniques, both Red and Blue, are incredibly powerful, and he doesn’t see the need to hold back with them. In his eyes, the training he’s forced to do is only keeping him weak. He needs to learn how to wield Red and Blue to the strongest of their abilities – and then push them to become even stronger.
The land that stretches past the estate has belonged to the Gojo clan for centuries. It’s located in a more remote area compared to the Zen’in and Kamo clans’ homes, close to Kyoto. He’s wandered these grounds, but he’s never been allowed to stray too far, at least not without an attendant. It’s annoying. Even at only ten, he’s already the strongest sorcerer, so why does he need a babysitter?
As they wander further away from the estate, Satoru glances around. He can still feel the traces of Utahime’s cursed energy, an invisible line keeps the two of them tethered, but he can’t see her. Is she slipping through the shadows of the trees? Can she keep herself invisible? He wishes he could talk to see and figure out what she’s feeling. This is the first time she’s been allowed to see the sun in who knows how long. It frustrates him that she can’t enjoy the gift he’s given her.
By the time Chino stops in a clearing, Satoru realizes he’s never traveled this far into the grounds away from the Gojo estate. He furrows his brow and looks around. The area looks both familiar and new at the same time. Why would they need to come out this far? The training grounds should’ve been sufficient. Sure, he can go all out more here, but coming out this far seems like overkill.
Again, there’s that flicker of cursed energy from Chino – jumpy, like he’s struggling to control it. That’s unusual.
Satoru looks over his shoulder to stare at his teacher. “Why are we all the way–?”
A horrified cry cuts through the air from somewhere in the wooded area, then a resounding crack, followed by a powerful wave of cursed energy that steals the breath from Satoru’s lungs. He recognizes it in an instant.
It’s Utahime, and she is far stronger than he realized.
When Utahime walks out of the woods into the clearing, a trail of darkness seeps out from behind her. It pours from her feet with every step she takes, sinking into the grass and up the trees, until the world seems blotted out. It’s as if everything has gone grey and cold, tainted by her power. Oddly enough though, instead of shivering, warmth burns through Satoru from the inside out, his cursed energy coming to life without him reaching for it, like she’s pulling it from the depths for him.
Behind him, Chino stammers, “Wha–? What is that?”
Only then does Satoru realize Utahime is dragging something behind her. He barely blinks when she tosses a lifeless man at his feet. The body is twisted in all the wrong ways, legs and arms broken, blood seeping out from empty sockets down his cheeks, with the bottom half of his jaw hanging on by a thread in a permanent silent scream.
Utahime points a bloodied, sharp finger behind Satoru. “You’re attempting to kill him.”
Satoru slowly turns around to look at Chino, whose face has gone pale, all the blood rushed away.
“Who-Who–?” Chino was shaking. “No, I–”
“You aren’t trying to kill him?” Utahime tilts her head. “Are you trying to capture him then? It would be easier to kill him, but as the Six Eyes user, he would be worth more alive.”
“Who are you?” Chino demands in a panic. “What are you?”
“Put up your Infinity, Satoru,” Utahime says instead, staring down Chino with a cold expression. “There are more curse users surrounding us. I only killed three of them.”
“Three?” Chino chokes out.
Utahimes flicks the dead body a look of derision as she nudges it with her bare foot. “This one put up more a fight, but that’s expected. You wouldn’t use anything less than grade one sorcerers to take out a Special Grade, even if he is still a child.”
“What’s going on?” Satoru asks, an odd sense of detached calmness coming over him.
No, not calm. Utahime’s cursed energy. It’s washing over him in waves, lapping at the shores of his Infinity, begging to be let in closer. With the Binding Vow connecting them, he finally gets a clear sense of her cursed energy. He can feel it, the way it rises and falls like breathing. He knows, instinctively, that if he were to touch it – truly touch it – it would affect him deeply
“This was a trap, Satoru,” Utahime tells him. “He is a traitor.”
Satoru turns on Chino. “Is this true?”
“No!” Chino gasps. “No, I would never betray you, Gojo-sama! I am nothing but loyal to the Gojo clan – to you!”
Satoru might be a child, but he’s not an idiot. He’s survived multiple attempts on his life, including two when he was less than a year old. Chino would not be the first person in his own clan to sell him out. As much as he is a wonder in Jujutsu society, he is also a curse in a sense. A beacon of light is not good for everyone. His birth threw off the balance, and his death is desired by curse users and curses alike. Even some of his own allies fear him, perhaps even loathe him.
Power makes people desperate, even if it isn’t their own.
Putting up a wall of Infinity, Satoru releases the cap on his cursed energy, allowing it to pour freely from him. Behind him, he hears Utahime suck in a breath, but his sharp blue eyes are trained on Chino. The man crumples to his knees, unable to withstand the pressure of Satoru’s cursed energy.
“You know me, Satoru,” Chino insists. “I have been your teacher since you were three. I would not…”
“How much were you paid to lure me away?” Satoru asks, stepping toward him.
Chino flinches. “I-I didn’t–”
Satoru stops right before him, lording over him, far more terrifying than a child of ten. “How many curse users are out there waiting to attack? How many did you tell them they needed to take me?”
Utahime stands behind him and places one hand on his shoulder, causing a shiver to run up his spine. She drops her chin on his other shoulder, a close gesture of fondness. “You don’t need to ask him that. Close your eyes. Sense it for yourself. Pick out the cursed energy signatures.” She lets out a low hum that rings in his ears. “He said this was to be a lesson, did he not?”
Satoru closes his eyes. She’s right. He doesn’t need to actually see with his physical eyes to see. It takes him a minute, but multiple cursed energy signatures appear in the woods. Two in front of him, three on the left, one on the right. None behind them, because Utahime killed the curse users already.
“Nine,” Satoru says, opening his eyes. “You allowed nine curse users onto the Gojo clan grounds to capture me.”
Judging by the way Chino’s face falls, he knows it’s over. The only thing left to do is plead, and so he throws his entire body to the ground at Satoru’s feet. “It– It was a moment of weakness. I was cornered, threatened, but I would never do harm to you. Please, I beg for your mercy. I am– I am your kin .”
“Mercy? Do you truly believe he deserves that?” Utahime scoffs. “He sold you out to curse users. He lured you into a vulnerable position. You were supposed to be alone.”
That’s right. Chino was unaware of Utahime’s presence until she took out the curse users closing in behind them. He would been caught unaware if not for her. She protected him. She saved him, when his own kin sold him out, the curse his clan imprisoned in the basement.
His curse.
“How will you punish him?” Utahime asks.
Satoru grits his teeth. As furious and hurt as he is by Chino’s betrayal, the idea of hurting his own blood makes him feel ill. It’s in that moment, as he glares down while Chino cries pathetically for forgiveness and mercy, that Satoru realizes that, for all his strength, he is still a child. He’s faced other sorcerers before, but this is different. Chino is not fighting back – he’s given up – but he should still be punished.
“I can do it for you,” Utahime whispers softly. “A gift in return for your gift to me.”
Chino’s head jerks up. “Please, Gojo-sama, no–”
By now, he must know on some level what Utahime is, even if he doesn’t understand her presence. No, Chino did not know about this dark clan secret. And it will die with him too. No one can know about this. It will damn him, but he doesn’t care. As the future head of the Gojo clan, Utahime was destined to be his burden to carry.
“The others are moving in,” Utahime tells him. “They will attack soon.”
“I know,” Satoru mutters, clenching his hands into fists at his side. There are six remaining curse users in total, seven if Chino is desperate enough to help them if he thinks it’ll mean surviving. Satoru knows he’s incredibly powerful for his age, but strength does not make up for a lack of experience and planning. He can still be overwhelmed, especially since he doesn’t know their abilities. He’s been attacked before, but never like this.
But he’s not alone.
“What have you done?” Chino whispers, horrified, but Satoru pays him no mind. He can only think of her.
Utahime’s hand falls to one of his fists, gently prying it open so she can slide her delicate fingers through his. “I can help you, if you let me.”
Satoru eyes her sideways. “How?”
“ Soro Soro Kinku , my cursed technique,” Utahime says. “Are you not curious?”
Of course he is. Now that he can feel her cursed energy through the Binding Vow, he’s more eager than ever, to the point where it almost smothers his fear. She’s blinding. He’s beginning to understand why she was hidden away from others. It’s not something he wants to share.
“I am bound to you,” she says, a soft smile touching her lips. “Not even the last Six Eyes user could do that, not the way he wanted, at least. It is why I was imprisoned. I rejected him. I would not give myself to him.”
“But you’ll help me?” Satoru asks.
“He locked me away in the dark,” Utahime replies, “but you brought me into the light.”
Satoru thought allowing Utahime to step foot out of the basement was his biggest mistake, but dropping Infinity just enough for Utahime’s cursed energy to touch him is truly his greatest sin. It seeps into him, weaving its way into his blood and bones, knitting itself in the stitches of his soul, until he can barely breathe. His cursed energy pulses so strongly that it feels like he might explode with it. He has to grip her hand to steady himself, dizzy with power, but then he’s grinning and laughing, pulling her closer.
The change is instant. Everyone knows it.
But it’s too late. One smile from Utahime, and Satoru is gone. The rest doesn’t matter. When he kills all the curse users, it’s with her hand in his hand and her cursed energy guiding him, the two of them entangled in a way that can never be unraveled.
Is she his curse, or is he hers?
It doesn’t matter, he supposes, not when they’ll always be together.