The Binding Vow of Lazarus

Chapter 100

He groaned, shifting himself to sit up. The campsite they'd set up outside the capital wasn't nearly as comfortable as anyone wanted. They'd tried all the survival tricks, but survival didn't appear to mesh well with 'comfort' and so they did their best with that.

Suguru was on watch, sitting by the fire with his arms crossed. The flames reflected in his unfocused gaze and his knee was bouncing. No doubt he was trying to keep himself awake somehow and Satoru couldn't help but chuckle.

That caught his attention and Suguru's head whipped towards him before he flipped him off with a grin. Satoru rolled out of his sleeping bag, turning around to tuck it closer in to Sarah before joining Suguru beside the fire.

"You've been mumbling over there," Suguru said, nodding his head towards Satoru's sleeping bag. "Couldn't sleep at all?"

Satoru could see the nosy grin on his face and he sneered back. "Yeah, that's right," he said, "Bet you wanna know all about it."

"Yes, actually," Suguru nodded, grinning.

"Yeah, so if you don't mind... could we?" Satoru asked, smiling, but just a little more serious as the whole thought mess was setting in again.

Suguru nodded, slipping his hands into his sleeves and shifting to face Satoru a little better in his seat.

"Last night, Sarah equalized me in her sleep," Satoru said quietly.

Suguru's eyes widened. "Oh, that is big," he said, almost with wonder. "Was it anything like the way Mitsuru had described?"

Satoru tilted his head, considering the question for a beat. "Well, yeah I'd say so," he said, "But not entirely? Maybe because it was only for a few seconds, but I couldn't get a huge feel from it. It's what woke me up and I stopped her before it went on longer."

"So, what did you see?" Suguru asked then grimaced as the possibilities were beginning to dawn on him, "Was it something unpleasant?"

"Well it wasn't exactly unpleasant," Satoru sighed, feeling his cheeks heating up. Now wasn't the time to feel randomly shy, but, well, here we were. It didn't feel embarrassing at the time, but somehow he knew telling Suguru about it meant he was about to get laughed at.

"I saw another life of ours," he began to explain, "She was watching me fight Sukuna and it wasn't the last one where I died. I won in this one and she was one of the only people who survived. It was only a few of my students left, her and Tsukumo. I don't know what happened, but I know that everyone else was dead." His hands flexed in his lap. "She was going to take Tsukumo back to try again, but not me. I don't know why, but maybe it was for herself? I'd lost my vision from something Sukuna did and she felt really bad about it."

He cleared his throat, the burning making it to his ears as he mumbled out the last part, "And so, she was leaving and I made a binding vow with her that I'd... y'know, find her again in every life, y'know that romantic kind of junk."

Suguru snorted.

"Shut up," Satoru groaned.

"Alright, alright," Suguru snickered, "I'm sorry. I know how it gets in the heat of the moment. So you're concerned that you've been forced into loving her?"

"Right, but don't forget, we broke all her vows with the Broken Promise," Satoru said, pointing towards their packs where the knife itself was carefully wrapped inside a case.

"Oh, yes," Suguru snapped his fingers, pointing at Satoru. "I hadn't remembered, but you're right. All of her vows were cut right then and both Yaga and Tsukumo confirmed it. That would also explain why you'd changed so much afterwards."