The dying song

Chapter IV: Back to December

2016.

Satoru.

Gojo Satoru never had a peaceful winter. Not that he can remember.

Snow was always heavy during his birthday, and so were dangers and death threats he had to face from close relatives and acquaintances since his birth. Just because he was born blessed, just because throughout the Heavens and Earth, he alone was the honored one. Born powerful, but not strong, so he had to become the strongest, for his family's and his sake, he had to.

But he didn't know that becoming the strongest would lead to feeling the loneliest.

His nanny died one December, when the snow was so thick he almost sank in it on his way to see her before she gave her last breath. She called for him, but he never came. He had just turned ten years old and he didn't make it on time; she was the only person who had genuinely loved him until then.

His best friend left one December, choosing the wrong path instead of staying with him and Shoko. His ideals and goals were more important than the two of them, and thus, they had to let him go.

And last, but not least, had been her.

Her.

The first time they met, the weather was warm and it was raining. Her long pigtails bounced as she ran to her classroom, cherry blossoms falling from the trees on her dark hair in a melodic blend that melted with her graceful movements until he lost sight of her. She was already eighteen. He was only fifteen.

The first time they kissed, they were sitting on a bench, waiting for summer vacation. She had told him something about training, and he suddenly felt the urge to crash his lips against hers, under the shadow of the shrine roof, surrounded by a choir of chirping cicadas that were hushed by an unexpected but never unwelcome gush of air, camouflaging the beating of his pounding heart as if shielding them both from their loud, dangerous world.

But she had run away, startled by his actions, cheeks blushing, pigtails loosening until her beautiful dark hair was flowing along the wind, the color of her smooth cursed energy floating candidly around her and she disappeared at the end of one of the school's corridors.

The first time they made love, leaves fell from trees like millions of colorful snowflakes tapping on his window, mingling in sync with his low moans in her neck, the heavy sighs she sang in his shoulder as he deeply buried himself inside her, under a sneaking, dim sunlight.

He was nineteen, she was already twenty-two, both of them clumsy, inexperienced, awkward, but fitting together right. She was his first, and he was hers, feeling like they belonged together. She had kissed him until morning light, until their lips were swollen and their chests could almost burst out with happiness. Her "but we're friends, right?" , and his "yes, we are" were all his yearning, thundering heart needed for a heartbreak, but he held her tight until she got up to dress and leave, and he suddenly felt all alone, craving her scent and warmth.

It was always like this. She always left him with a hollow heart and unanswered questions. He never understood why, but they always came back to each other. Always. Until that winter.

The last time he saw her, snow fell heavy on his head and shoulders. He went to ask her why she didn't call him for his birthday, but instead, in Shoko's office, he found a long, deep and bleeding wound in her face. He had asked the doctor what happened, shocked when he heard the fateful news.

A curse. Utahime was sent on a mission with a curse a grade above hers, which put her life in risk; she barely made it out alive. As Shoko used her Reverse Cursed Technique to heal her, an enraged Gojo Satoru decided it was time to kill the higher-ups, but she stopped him, the three of them knowing it was pointless. He might succeed and kill them, but after that, the wave of destruction and chaos that would appear after the Japan government found out was going to be terrible. Unfathomable.