Fragility (Jujutsu Kaisen)

~ Chapter 22 ~

The two teens reach for the door frantically, a strained protest coming from them both. The two women smirked as they slammed it shut and locked the pair in the meeting room. "You will stay in there until you talk to each other. We've had enough of this awkwardness." Satoru's mother said, Yui making a noise of agreement. Both teenagers, dressed in their uniforms, turned to each other as they heard the women's footsteps retreating from the room. 

Satoru watched Sachiko pace around the room from his seat in the corner, a leg crossed over the other. Their eyes met every few steps, earning a quiet scoff from the girl. He raised his eyebrow as she stopped, and he witnessed her deep in thought for a moment. His eyes softened as he stood up and walked towards her. She glanced at him and stood up straight, defensive against his approach. After ten minutes, Satoru finally broke the thick silence, "You've been ignoring me since the attack." 

"You didn't come to see me. I spent hours alone in that room mourning you, our future." She said quietly. Satoru shook his head, annoyed that she was holding this against him. Sachiko watched his demeanour change, and she frowned, "You've changed since the attack. Because of the attack."

"I'm here now. I have been dying to show you the advancements I've made with my technique, so if you're done moping around..." 

"I don't think you understand Satoru. I. Thought. You. Were. Dead. And why did I think that? Well, maybe because your dead, shredded body was lying on the ground like an amateur chef had tried to eat you for dinner." Sachiko said, her expressions and speech animated as all the feelings she had thought disappeared came streaming back into her body all at once. "So in the period between the attack and finding out you were alive, glavanting around the city. I realised that I have nothing to live for without you, and as it turns out, my whole life revolves around you." 

"Agh! This argument again? Every few years, you bring up the same bullshit, that you aren't good enough, have nothing to live for and that I'm abandoning you. Give it a rest, Sachi." Satoru replied, rolling his eyes at the girl's attempt to convey her feelings, but they were dismissed like a common servant. He turned his back to her and went to sit back in his seat, taking his previous position. "You feel you've fallen behind, constantly trying to catch up to me. I have told you time and time again that it. Does. Not. Matter. I will need you no matter what, and you have your friends now, too. So let's move on," 

"Stop trying to play this off! I am constantly chasing after you, but how do you catch up with someone destined to be the strongest? Only one person stands by your side at this moment, and despite being your fiancee, I am not that person." Sachiko argued, pointing to herself. Her face was red as her words continuously ran from her mouth like a broken faucet. Satoru attempted to butt in multiple times, but she wouldn't leave a second of silence that he could fill. She needed him to listen as this was her time, and no matter what, he would hear her out today. "I was bought for you. All my abuse was to perfect me for you. My schooling is for you. My Childhood is yours, My curse technique, My children, My Life and my Death will be for you. So you cannot tell me you are not the sun, and I'm simply just a planet waiting for you to burn out, taking me with you. I am constantly told that you will be my downfall, and I am beginning to see that." 

"If that's how you feel, then we won't get married; you are so set on us failing, then we won't start. I've always told you that if you do not want us to be married, that is your choice; I do not care either way." Satoru said casually, making the girl's eyes widen at his words. She felt her heart grow heavier at his words, and tears started to brim her eyes. Satoru watched her with a poker face, seemingly telling his true thoughts on their engagement. "That means that anything you believe is for me will not be. After we graduate, we'll go our separate ways, and our lives will no longer be one. You can leave Jujutsu Society, settle down, and have a family. Maybe even move to a different continent? I would if I were you because what has Jujutsu Society ever done for you?" 

"You're an asshole, Satoru Gojo." Sachiko spat as her tears streamed down her face. Her breathing was uneven as she tried to hold back the sobs that were painfully trapped in her throat. Satoru's face didn't budge, but he once again saw the little girl that called him an asshole so long ago. The catalyst to the relationship they have today. 

"I am only telling you your options; you aren't happy, Sachiko. So let's call thi-" 

"Shut up." She barked, which made the room silent. "You always have to have the last word, don't you? I want to get married to YOU, and I always have. I want your children and to spend my life with you. I love you so much, but how the fuck can you sit there and watch me break down in front of you? Acting like you giving me up is like brushing a leaf off your shoulder." 

"I don't know what you want then Sachiko." He sighed as he leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. 

"Neither do I! I've never had the chance to decide what I want or to even think about what I want. It's been the two of us for so long, and I was so alone before you, but that was all a part of the plan. The plan that has been set out for me since the moment I opened my eyes is constantly changing, but I have never had a say in it. Did you know I was meant to be sold to another man?" She said this gained Satoru's attention as their eyes locked. Sachiko shook her head at the teen boy, "I just have to sit back and see where I am put next. The only thing that could stop everything I have gone through was if I was never born. I'm a cursed child who will continuously endure pain and loss, no matter how hard you work, Satoru. Whether I marry you or someone else. My only choice was loving you, and I believe I didn't have much influence over that either." 

"Sachiko, we have fallen in love and have made the most out of our predicament. That was our choice. If I didn't love you, do you think I would be willing to go through with this? I would have put a stop to this immediately but I want to try to make you happy. And being with you? You are my reason for everything. You don't think you're the only planet? You are my sun." Sachiko's tears continued as she walked towards the seated boy. She sat down slowly on his lap, and he sat up so their faces were close to each other. "So I ask that for me, for us, our future and our childhood, that you please have faith in me so that the moment I head the Gojo Clan, I will turn the tables that have wronged us. I will not let anyone take the next generation's childhood away because the brief moments we were allowed to be children were the best moments of my life."

"Satoru, can't you see?" Sachiko said, her eyebrows knitting together as her head turned slightly. Her hand travelled up his arm to his neck and finally stopped on his cheek. Her thumb gently caressed his cheek before leaning up and gently kissing him. She used her feet to deepen the kiss before her heels returned to the floor. "We are still children. Our world has not allowed us to be that. We are talking about our marriage and our future, but I can't remember the last time I worried that you would see a pimple on my cheek or that my homework wasn't handed in. Normal fifteen-year-old things."

"So then we will change the world. So that you can worry all about your pimples, homework and other fifteen-year-old issues."