Chapter Text
Prologue
~~~~~~~~~
"And then I can tell myself
What the hell I'm supposed to do
And then I can tell myself
Not to ride along with you
I had all and then most of you
Some and now none of you
Take me back to the night we met."
The Night We Met-Lord Huron
~~~~~~~~~
“Can you be serious for a minute?” Yaga asked exasperated. The Principal of Tokyo Jujutsu Tech was looking at the Head of the Gojo Clan with nothing short of annoyance in his gaze.
Gojo rolled his head looking at the other Alpha from behind his glasses. “I’m seriously telling you no.”
Yaga growled, pouring himself another shot of sake. “You understand the implications that this is going to have, right?”
Gojo shrugged. He didn’t particularly care at the moment. Suguru was gone…the feeling of killing his best friend welling up. It had been like this for a few months after Gojo had taken his life. This impossible feeling that the only person he had ever loved was just…gone. It came and went in waves–the grief, the denial, the anger, and self-loathing.
Then the nightmares. The nightmares of the day Suguru had left Gojo on the street. The nightmares of Gojo showing up too late and Suguru had taken Rika leaving Yuta’s lifeless body on the ground.
Gojo pushed it away, keeping the ever coolness in front of Yaga. “Again, if the Americans can’t handle their own Curse Users, then they shouldn’t even be sorcerers.”
“The Americans are our allies,” Yaga gritted out. “If we don’t answer their call for aid then we’re hanging them out to dry.”
Gojo shrugged. “Don’t care. I’m not going.”
Yaga’s grip on the sake glass would’ve broken if he didn’t take a calming breath. Shaking his head, he knew Gojo wasn’t going to change his mind on the matter. “Fine. I’ll let them know.”
While Yaga picked up the phone, Gojo perused the principal’s office. Books littered the bookshelves with diagrams of his Cursed Corpses, like autopsies but weirder. “Marvin, hello sorry for the late call,” Yaga shot Gojo a look that said last chance to do the right thing. Gojo shrugged, looking bored. Yaga bared his teeth and continued calling the head of the American Jujutsu Tech. “I hate to do this, but Gojo won’t be able to help you handle the Curse User Mora Emmerson.”
Gojo could hear the screeching from here. “What do you mean he won’t be able to come?! She’s been terrorizing our students and has killed two of our top Grade Ones!”
“I know, I’m sorry,” Yaga gritted. “We’ve had a Special Grade Curse come up here that requires Gojo’s attention at the minute. Is Thunderstrike not available?”
Gojo frowned. Thunderstrike? Those Americans were always so tacky. The Jujutsu community was small, small enough that they didn’t need code names. And Thunderstrike, what a ridiculous name.
“Our Special Grade is in the middle of something else but I’m sure they will love being pulled away to handle this,” the American yelled. “Thanks for nothing Yaga!”
The line went dead.
It was a wonder that the phone didn’t break in Yaga’s hand as he stared down Gojo. “Are you happy now?”
Gojo fake smiled. “Deliriously.”
Yaga tossed back the sake. “I know you don’t care but you’re putting their Special Grade Sorcerer, Thunderstrike, in a bad position.”
“Tch,” he said. “I didn’t know they had a Special Grade Sorcerer.”
“You don’t listen to any of the briefings,” Yaga pointed out.
Gojo waved a hand. “Still, the American scale for Sorcerers isn’t the same as ours, so I doubt this Thunderstrike, is even as good as Nanami. And code names, what are they? Ten years old?”
“The Sorcerer apparently doesn’t want to be seen or named when lines of communication can be compromised. They have been hunting Mora Emmerson for a long time since she turned into a Curse User. It’s for preservation and the surprise element if information gets leaked. Which you would know all of that if you had bothered to read the report.”
Gojo didn’t have it in him to be contrite. When his presence had been requested to eliminate this Curse User, he knew he wasn’t going to take it.
While he should’ve said something a few days ago since it was the polite thing to do, he found himself just not caring.
All his care was spent taking care of his students and that left almost nothing else for anything else. It has been like that since Suguru…
Yaga sighed again like the weight of the world was bearing down on his shoulders. “What else is bothering you Gojo? And don’t say nothing–you never just ‘pop in’ for a visit.”
At least he knew Gojo well. “I have a favor to ask.”
If Yaga’s head could explode, it would. “You’re kidding? After the stunt you just pulled, you think you have a leg to stand on with favors right now?”
He did think that. He was the strongest after all.
But with that came some…complications. Rubbing a tongue over his prominent fangs, he smiled sweetly but Yaga held up a hand silencing him. “If this is about the council of elders pressuring you to get an Omega, don’t waste your breath. I can’t help you.”
“Why not?” Gojo pouted. That was exactly what he was going to ask.
Yaga shook his head. “You made a deal with them.”
“It wasn’t a binding vow though, so realistically I don’t have to follow through.”
“So you gave yourself a loophole, good for you. I don’t care. Fight your own battles with them,” Yaga snarled. The male’s scent got more acidic the longer Gojo was in his presence.
Gojo sighed. “I just…I don’t want an Omega right now. It wouldn’t be right to bring her into my life with the way things are.”
There was silence at the confession. No games, no trickery, just the truth. When he was growing up, being shackled by duty, honor, and obligation to the clan and the world, one of those things had been furthering the Gojo Clan name.
So many Omegas from other prominent Clans had been presented to him but they all were wrong. They didn’t smell right, didn’t act the way his Alpha wanted, didn’t have the Curse Technique that would match his–they just didn’t appeal to him.
And after Suguru defected, it was harder to focus on that. Finding a suitable Omega that could survive his best friend now wanting to kill him and the world…yeah, no. Wasn’t on Gojo’s to-do list. And if he found an Omega, how was he supposed to protect her and the pups they would create with the bounty on his head? He couldn’t fight Curses, Suguru and his cult, and keep his further family safe.
“I understand, Gojo,” Yaga said, as soft as the man could be. “But you promised the Council that once Geto was dealt with that you would take finding an Omega seriously. They want your line furthered as soon as possible.”
Gojo had been hoping for more time. The decade he had wasn’t enough. Stupid Suguru made him kill him before he was ready. How could he play his hand so early? How could he leave him in this mess by himself? How could he?
Leaning his head back, he stared at the ceiling. He would come up with something, he always did.
“In these moments, I don’t envy you, Satoru,” Yaga said.
“Yeah, I don’t envy me either.”