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Everyone had a soulmate. It was not something you could opt out of or take a rain check on. Everyone had one, most are romantic, others platonic, but they all come on the 5th birthday of every child's life. 5 is a very important birthday to have, at the stroke of midnight, a creature shaped as the soul of your soul mate will appear. They take on many shapes, cats, horses, dogs. Rarely do they take on mythical creatures, but it is possible. Usually the nature of the bond is not distinguished by the creature, although it can be seen as romantic or not by its initial size or how big the creature will naturally get. While most Soulmates are usually the same age, their love grows, and so does the patronus, as well as the age of the soulmate the patronus is tied to ages. It's like a physical show of how much your soulmate will love you, or already loves you without even having met yet.
To have a physical being that represents the love someone holds for you, something physical to show you will always have someone who will devote themselves to you, who would understand you and be beside you. A feeling everyone will have in their life.
With the exception of Satoru Gojo, of course.
His soul mate's patronus never showed, not at age 5, not at 6, not even at 16. He had long given up on the idea of his soulmate being late.
It had to be some sort of sick twist of fate to have the one person who could understand him or love him not exist. He had been gifted in status, money, and his inherited technique, so of course fate demanded something in return for it all at the price of one's true and only love.
It wasn't like he needed a soulmate anyway, once he got into high school and made his first real friends, he made memories and felt seen despite this. Yet he still tried to forget the fact that he had no soulmate even when the rest of his friends did.
Suguru's soulmate patronus was a whale shark, like most creatures of the soul, it didn't necessarily need to eat or be in its proper environment. This patronus floated in the air, swimming alongside Guru and shrinking its size just to fit into the hallways and classrooms, its nature was somber, yet it was happy with the simplest of things. Guru had waited, feeling that he would be meeting them soon, something about the romance of waiting for the right time to meet your soulmate like Nanami. Who had a rather chunky-looking ferret as his patronus, he had yet to go out and look for them even if the creature could lead him to them. Satoru just thinks they don't want to find them just yet, or maybe they just felt too lazy to do so with all the missions and schoolwork.
Haibara's patronus was a steady tortoise, large enough that he often sat on top of the creature, allowing it to lead the way to wherever it wished to go, which usually was to the school's gardens where it would eat every last vegetable it could if Haibara didn't stop them.
Shoko had a pure black rabbit, one that stood on her shoulder and nibbled gently on the collar of her uniform and seemed to always want to bite him when he got too close. The perfect match to Utahime's stout that mostly lazed about in their classmate's shrine maiden outfit and only came out to greet everyone, then making itself comfortable on someone's shoulder.
Meimei refused to show or disclose her soul mate's patronus, keeping the little creature at home with her family. How she managed to separate from the thing without feeling strange all day was beyond Satoru, but for all he knew, it was just a rumor and not reality that people cannot separate from their soul mate's patronus.
Unlike his friends, he didn't need a soulmate, he was happy as he was now. Here he was free, away from the suffocation of his family and their traditions.
He didn't need to be loved by a soulmate to feel whole.
It's spring, the air had yet to truly heat up from the winter, leaving it mostly chilly outside. The scarf he has around his neck is warm enough paired with his sweater, but he also doesn't necessarily need it anymore. Suguru had gone off on a mission a little while ago, just as Satoru had gotten back from his overnight mission, leaving Riko to stand beside him as they waved him off.
In the corner of his eyes, he could see Riko shiver, the girl was Suguru's soulmate, and he was a star-plasma vessel who had rejected the merge and had a near-quick brush with death at the hands of Toji Fushiguro. Satoru sighed through his nose, removing his scarf and letting it fall over the girl's head, who squeaked and looked up at Satoru with confusion before smiling, wrapping the wide scarf around her shoulders like a shawl.
He is ready to turn around when Riko gasps loudly, thinking something had slipped past his senses like Toji had. He turns quickly, ready to fight, only to come face to face with Riko, who had a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes.
"Oh god, it's so cute!"
She practically shrieked past her whisper, Satoru followed her eyes down to the ground where he saw it. A little bundle of fluffy, chubby tiger cub, its fur a delicate pink tone that nearly made Satoru think of the petals of a plum flower.
Just looking at it, he knew this was his soul mate's patronus.
His soul mate's patronus, who was a tiger, a pink fluffy tiger with the biggest golden eyes he's ever seen in his life, and he could feel his heart all but melt at the sight of it before he paused.
Paused because he was 18 now, and his soul mate's patronus looked fresh, still just a baby at that. Besides that, he could feel it, it came off in waves to his brain like a warm hug. This was supposed to be a romantic relationship.
His soulmate was currently 5 years old.
Letting out a heaving sigh, Satoru crouched down, his arms resting on his knees and head bowed as he thought it through. This wasn't too rare, although having this big of an age gap was.
Usually they were the same age or at the very least a handful of years apart if they were to be romantic. This would mean his soulmate, and he had a 12-year age gap between them, which didn't bode well for him.
While he didn't care what people thought of him, and he was sort of above any law considering what he had to do on the daily to protect normal citizens, and if he had to worry about the law now, he would have been put to death ages ago for all the murder he had to do as a child alone. But killing a hitman and curse users was different from having your romantic soulmate be born a whole decade after you.
Then a wet nose is pressed to his own, warm fluffy paws are pushing up on his chest, little claws catching on the fabric of his uniform. Satoru looked over the rim of his glasses at the little tiger cub. Once it saw it had his attention, it mewled that squeaky noise little tiger cubs make to get the attention of their mothers, and Satoru couldn't feel any sort of anger.
It was damn cute and soft, and so warm.
"Satoru, this is-"
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out without the extra input." Satoru huffed, his hand holding the tiger up by his bum and lifting himself up to full height, tiger cub in his arms seemed very much happy to be there, flopping over his shoulder and pawing at him.
"Guess this means im going to have to wait too-"
"Satoru!"
Both teens turned their heads sharply, looking above at the set of stairs that led further up to the school grounds, at the top stood a familiar, solid figure of their teacher, Yaga. The man was breathing hard, phone in his hand, his voice was urgent, putting a boost to Satoru's heart rate for only a moment before he grabbed onto Riko and warped the two forward to meet with the man.
"What's with the urgency? Looks like you ran all the way over here." Satoru chose to use humor, not missing how Yaga's eyes followed the sight of his patronus trying to climb and twist itself around the back of his neck like a fluffy, chubby scarf.
"Seems my hunch was right."
Satoru made a face, nose wrinkling a bit in confusion before there was a phone shoved in his face. To him, the image was inverted, so what he saw was a black dragon with 6 eyes that shone a bright yellow. The fact that he was looking at a dragon that wasn't a curse was confusing enough, but its size was what threw him off. This creature was as big as the house it was currently curled around, long body seemingly perfectly fine shoving itself in what little space was available between the homes around it, all the while a small boy stood at the front of the house, big smile on his face and arms in the air for the slightly grainy photo.
"Oh, okay, yeah, I guess the fact it has 6 eyes is on the nose." Riko mumbled, trying to look at the photo as well from under Satoru's chin.
"What do you want me to do about this?"
"Go there. The mother is Kaori Itadori."
Kiori Itadori was a retired sorcerer, retired as in she was supposed to be dead. Her technique was Gravity manipulation, and she was once a student and had worked far across Japan until disappearing suddenly 6 years ago, which matched the timeline quite well.
There were only two options in what happened, either she was legitimately dead, and her corpse was copied somehow by some curse technique to take her life, or she faked her death and was currently deemed a deserter. This would mean they would have to take her into custody, which is probably a horrible way to introduce yourself to your soulmate who still probably sleeps in his parents' bed when he gets scared at of 'monsters' in his closest.
Satoru doubted it was something as crazy as a doppelganger, who would want to take some random woman's life to raise some pink-haired brat? Even if the brat in question looked like the most adorable mochi looking thing he's ever seen in his life.
Satoru was prepared to fake something so that his young soulmate could still have his mother with him and not hate him before they even got the chance to truly be introduced. So he goes, His friend is called back and replaced with Nanami to follow along for reasons neither had any idea as to why. Satoru has been on many mission on his own by now and his title as the strongest wasn't just in name alone but Yaga had a bad feeling and simply went with his gut by sending the two together.
Sendai was about 2 hours away by train, leaving the two very little time to fuck around on the ride there. Satoru had opted to keep his little tiger cub close to his chest, allowing the sleepy little thing to lie splayed on his chest like a mini heating pad, which continued well past their time on the train and into the city.
When they got into the neighborhood Satoru could feel it, his patronus' energy was strong and heavy, almost like his own but just slightly different. As if sensing the other half of its human was near, the little tiger lifted his head, little ears twitching as it wiggled in Satoru's shirt to be let out.
"Stop that, we are going there anyway, just stay still." he hissed, earning a snort from Suguru, who moved on ahead, his whale share close behind him, the size of a cat for convenience, floating by his shoulder.
Even from a distance, Satoru could see the rolling snake-like body of his patronus on the horizon. Its scales shone in the sun like pearls, silver fur ran down its back, moving gently in the chilled spring breeze, then its head rose up. Satoru's eyes met its match of six down the street and felt his body stop.
Was that what his soul looked like?
Was his love so big it towered over houses? He hadn't even met his soulmate yet, but he knew it was true, he knew he would have done anything to have them despite trying to convince himself he didn't care, and now they are here.
He walks on, getting closer and closer till the boy finally noticed his giant dragon wasn't looking down at him anymore but at someone on the street.
Turns out all the movies were right, as soon as the pink-haired boy turned around, his eyes locked on Satoru's own, who had pushed his shades up onto his head in favor of looking at his soulmate undisturbed.
He could feel the rush of emotion then, curiosity, excitement, joy, love. Love for a person he hadn't even known yet, but he could feel it consuming him. Was this how Suguru felt when he had first seen Riko?
Satoru swallows thickly, barely registering that Suguru was watching him closely from the corner of his eyes as he stepped forward, patronus finally set free and running on ahead past Yuji and to the Dragon behind him. It lowered its large head, kept still as the tiger cup jumped up onto its snout and began making all kinds of little noises of excitement, happy to be together with the physical embodiment of Satoru's love for this boy's soul. Satoru would feel embarrassed for the sheer size of his patronus if he wasn't so distracted by 50 pounds of toddler barreling right towards him, the kid was surprisingly fast, hitting his legs like a small car at full speed. Satoru was luckily able to tank the charge, and if he healed his knees a little from how hard the boy crashed into him, he won't tell anyone.
"Hello! You're my soul mate! Im Yuji!"
Not a question, a statement. Golden eyes met with Blue, his shades knocked back down landing askew onto the bridge of his nose. This had the boy gasping loudly in that way kids do when they saw something cool.
"Woah, big brother, your eyes are so pretty!"
"Big brother?"
Both Suguru and Satoru spoke out at once, although one came out more like a laugh and the other choked out in shock. Satoru felt his face heat up, closing his eyes and grinding his teeth in feigning annoyance when in his head he's hoping he doesn't end up with some sort of incest kink later down the line if this keeps up.
"Your his soulmate?"
A second voice comes from behind Yuji, quickly introduced by Yuji yelling out for him and changing directions to hop over to his grandfather. The old man grumbled, patting the boy's head before picking him up in his arms, looking over at two students, then back at the house before rushing forward.
"Take him."
The old man whispered harshly, not even looking at Satoru as he handed the boy over eyes still on the close front door of the house. Both teens looked confused while Satoru grunted when a whole toddler was shoved right into his arms. Fixing his hands so he could support Yuji in his arms better trying to avoid letting the kid slip or feel uncomfortable.
"Go now before she sees you-"
The old man spoke urgently, looking back now at the two teens with a desperation neither could quite understand. Suddenly, the dragon growled low, picking up the tiger cup in a large claw and pulling it up and out of the way of a woman walking out of the house.
"Father, why is a strange boy holding my son?"
The boy in his arms curled forward, his little face finding a hiding spot at the bend of Satoru's neck, seeming nervous suddenly at the arrival of the woman who was most likely Yuji's mother. The old man, on the other hand, clicked his tongue, seeming almost angry at the sound of her voice, brows creasing, showing the subtle anxiety he held back.
Both teens looked up, a woman with short, cut straight black hair and a lethal figure came forward. She looked normal, save for the dead fish-like look in her eyes and a stitched up scar across her forehead. She held no light in her eyes, the pupils didn't even change size as she walked outside into the sunlight, just completely void of light.
Alright, it seemed something did take her corpse that was not something he was expecting, but it was something he would need to deal with, yet his body stopped. The boy in his arms gripped at the front of his uniform, nearly shaking from fear. His eyes flicked to the old man he knew something was wrong with that woman, and Satoru could feel it and he was sure Suguru felt it as well. His friend was tense behind him, even taking a step back, which confused him till his eyes snapped back on the woman in front of them once again.
She was looking right at Suguru, her near plastic wrapped looking face lit up unnervingly in a smile that stretched just a little too far. Her face looked wrong, like a someone putting make up on a doll almost too perfect to the point of uncanny. There where she stood she looked past all bodies and right to the black haired teen in a way of desire that was too hard to hide when she tried to cover it up with a calm facade.
This woman screamed 'wrong' to Satoru, something about her was even messing with his eyes. While her physical form looked the same as the images they had of Kiori, down to the cursed energy reading which looked relatively normal for a sorcerer, yet every alarm bell in his head began to blare.
He wanted to fight, wanted to throw Yuji to Suguru and charge ahead, but something in him told him to wait.
The old man in front of him would be collateral damage if Kiori activated her attack, Yuji seemed to love this man dearly too which means he wasn't going to just throw him away in favor of the upper hand. Besides the point that if this was some sort of body snatcher he didn't know the parameters on how it happened his eyes didn't read anything on that and it was making the hairs on his neck stand on end like he can just understand but something was blocking it. This woman was looking right at Suguru, he had something she wanted and he wasn't sure if this woman needed a single touch or what step she needed to follow to get what she wanted.
He wasn't going to risk his best friend either.
Kiori moved first, a hand reaching forward as if to grab at Suguru's throat. At that moment, three things happened at once.
Suguru grabbed the old man, pulling him back with force to gain distance. Kiori activated her technique and pressure was put onto Infinity, suddenly making his feet sink into the concrete driveway of the Itadoris' home. The dragon swooped its tail low, catching the woman on her side and sending her flying in an arch over homes and small businesses with nothing but a annoyed grunt signaling her departure.
Satoru took a second to watch her go before turning to Suguru, both the old man and his friend were fine. Mostly at least, The old man looked horrified his eyes locked onto where Satoru's feet where sunk into the ground then back at Yuji who took now to look up confused but breathing heavy. Satoru's voice came out quick, pushing his glasses back up to proper position hiding the glow from behind its glass.
"He's fine, she didn't touch him at all."
"We are leaving now," Suguru stated cutting into the small chat, his eyes still looking back over to where the woman had been sent off too. Satoru was all too willing to agree as the other summoned his curse and quickly climbed on while forcing the old man to follow along 'with him, who grumbled angrily about leaving his home unlocked and to.
"Leave an old man behind."
Satoru quickly followed behind him, taking one jump to get onto the dragon shaped curses back and only needing a glance to see his patronus carrying the tiger cup in the gentle clasp of its jaws, much like a Gator with its clutch.
They are up in the air in seconds, Satoru expanding infinity to deal with the wind resistance for all boarding. From below he could see Kiori, the woman's head was turned up soulless eyes watching them fly off her body quickly turning into a black speck on the ground in just a few moments the higher they climbed.
Yuji had been amazed at the sight of a whole other dragon and then the fact they where up in the air. Golden eye looking around and below them as far are Satoru allowed him to look with wonder, then back at Satoru like he held up the very world akin to Atlas.
"Were gonna be together forever." Yuji whispered in a way that was loud enough for Satoru to hear, and in his gut he knew that statement was true. He was never letting go of his soulmate now, not when the danger came from the very house he sat in. He nearly failed once before in protecting someone, now he can't not with his soul mate on the line.
So he nods his head , pushing up his glasses up to show off his eyes and smiles in a way that he's never felt his face go into soft and warm and filled with a love he couldn't hide even if he tried.
"Yeah, forever wont let anyone take you from me now."