Mirror

The next day, Suguru Geto was allowed to get out of bed and walk around.

His body was recovering faster than expected. Though Shoko's Reverse Cursed Technique was nowhere near as absurdly powerful as Satoru Gojo's ability to heal himself, as a healing-focused jujutsu sorcerer, she could mend most injuries within a few days. His cracked bones were seventy percent healed, and the damage to his internal organs had largely been repaired. The only problem was the "foreign object" in his cursed energy core.

It was still there.

It had neither spread nor dissipated.

Wearing hospital clothes, Suguru Geto steadied himself against the wall and slowly made his way to the infirmary door. He pushed it open. The corridor was empty.

He took a deep breath and began to walk slowly forward.

Not because he had somewhere to go, but because he needed to prove he could still walk. He had been lying down for too long, long enough that his muscles had begun to weaken. He needed to move, to feel his body in motion, to confirm that this body still belonged to him.

He reached the end of the corridor, where a window overlooked the grounds of Jujutsu High.

There were people out there.

Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami.

Haibara was running in workout clothes. His steps were not as light as they used to be. Kento Nanami stood beside the track with a stopwatch in his hand, but he was not checking the time. He was watching Haibara.

Suguru Geto stood at the window, watching Haibara run lap after lap.

Haibara ran for a long time, from afternoon until dusk. His steps grew slower and heavier, but he did not stop. Kento Nanami stood nearby without urging him on or trying to talk him out of it. He simply stayed there.

At last, Haibara stopped.

He bent over, bracing his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath.

Kento Nanami walked over and offered him a bottle of water.

Haibara did not take it.

He stayed there, bent at the waist, his shoulders trembling faintly. It was not from exhaustion. Suguru Geto could tell he was crying.

Kento Nanami was silent for a few seconds, then set the water bottle on the ground at Haibara's feet. He did not say, "Don't cry," or, "It's all right now." He simply stood there with one hand on Haibara's back, patting it again and again.

Watching them, Suguru Geto felt a tangle of emotions rise in his chest.

Yu Haibara was not crying out of fear or pain, but guilt. He thought he had nearly gotten Suguru Geto killed. He thought everything was his fault, that if he had been a little stronger, a little more cautious, a little less optimistic, none of this would have happened.

Suguru Geto understood Yu Haibara. That boy who always smiled did not smile because he had no pain, but because he hid all of it beneath that smile. When he could no longer smile, all that suppressed pain came flooding out.

Suguru Geto pushed the window open.

The evening breeze swept in, carrying the scent of grass and dust from the grounds.

"Haibara!" he called.

His voice was a little hoarse, but loud enough. Yu Haibara jerked his head up and looked toward the window. When he saw Suguru Geto standing there, his tears fell even harder.

"Geto!" Haibara's voice scattered in the wind, but Suguru Geto still heard him.

"Stop running," Suguru Geto said. "Come up."

Yu Haibara stood frozen for a few seconds. Then he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, picked up the water bottle from the ground, and ran toward the building with Kento Nanami.

Suguru Geto stood at the window, watching them run toward him. The corner of his mouth shifted. Something like relief, something like exhaustion, something like hope formed an expression even he could not decipher. Then he, too, returned to the infirmary.

A few minutes later, Yu Haibara burst into the infirmary.

His eyes were red, and so was the tip of his nose. He stood beside Suguru Geto's bed, his lips trembling. He wanted to say something, but could not get a single word out.

Suguru Geto sat on the bed and looked at him.

"Haibara," he said, "you're alive. So am I. That's enough."

Tears welled up in Yu Haibara's eyes again.

He bent over and buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking violently. He desperately tried to hold himself back, not wanting to cry in front of Suguru Geto, but his body betrayed him.

Suguru Geto reached out and rested his hand on Haibara's head.

The gesture was gentle and slow, as though he was afraid of disturbing something. Haibara's hair was soft, a little damp, and smelled of sweat.

"It's all right now," Suguru Geto said. "You're safe."

Yu Haibara finally cried aloud, sobbing like a child. He crouched on the floor and buried his face in his knees, crying so hard his whole body shook.

Kento Nanami stood in the doorway, watching it all. His expression remained serious, but Suguru Geto noticed a faint redness around his eyes.

He did not come inside. He simply stood there like a guardian, making sure no one disturbed this moment.

That night, Suguru Geto did not return to the dormitory.

Shoko said he needed another night of observation, so he spent one more night lying in the infirmary.

Satoru Gojo arrived a little after ten.

He carried a bag of things in one hand. Without a word, he walked in and set it straight on Suguru Geto's bed.

"What is it?" Suguru Geto asked.

"Food," Satoru Gojo said. "You haven't eaten all day."

Suguru Geto opened the bag. Inside was a bowl of ramen, its noodles already a little clumped together, though it was still steaming. There was also a bottle of tea, two rice balls, and a small bag of gummies.

"Why did you buy so much?" Suguru Geto asked.

"Didn't know which you'd like, so I bought them all." Satoru Gojo pulled over a chair, sat beside the bed, and propped his legs on the rail at its foot.

Suguru Geto picked up the chopsticks and began eating the ramen. The noodles had clumped together, and the broth had gone cold, but he ate slowly and carefully.

Satoru Gojo did not rush him. He sat there looking out the window, occasionally humming a few off-key snatches of song.

Halfway through the meal, Suguru Geto suddenly stopped.

"Satoru," he said, "can you see that thing inside my body?"

Satoru Gojo stopped humming.

"Yes," he said.

"What does it look like?"

Satoru Gojo was silent for a few seconds. Then he took off his sunglasses, turned his head, and looked at Suguru Geto with his azure Six Eyes.

"Like a mirror," he said. "A broken one."

Suguru Geto's heart gave a sudden jolt.

"What kind of mirror?"

"A shattered mirror." Satoru Gojo's tone was calm, but Suguru Geto noticed his brows drawing together slightly. "It has a lot of cracks. Light comes through them. Not the light of your cursed energy. Something else."

"What?"

"I don't know." Satoru Gojo put his sunglasses back on and leaned against the back of his chair. "But I feel like I've seen that light somewhere before."

Suguru Geto watched him, waiting for him to continue.

Satoru Gojo did not continue.

He simply closed his eyes as though he had fallen asleep. But Suguru Geto knew he had not. His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest, once, twice, three times, as though he was thinking something over.

The infirmary fell quiet.

There was only the sound of the wind, the rustle of the curtains, and their breathing.

Suguru Geto finished the ramen, drank the tea, and ate a gummy. He set the bag on the bedside table, lay down, and stared at the ceiling.

"Satoru," he said.

"Mm? What?"

"Thank you."

Satoru Gojo did not answer. After a while, Suguru Geto heard his breathing grow steady. He had fallen asleep in the chair, his legs propped on the rail at the foot of the bed, his head tilted to one side, and his sunglasses slipping down to the tip of his nose.

Suguru Geto looked at him.

Moonlight streamed through the window and fell across Satoru Gojo's white hair. His sleeping face was peaceful, without any of his daytime swagger or flippancy. There was only a pure tranquility.

Suguru Geto remembered the Satoru Gojo of the future, that twenty-seven-year-old man who stood alone atop the words "the strongest." Did that man sleep like this, too? Did he close his eyes without a trace of wariness beside someone's bed, under someone's gaze?

He did not know.

He only knew that right now, on this night, in this infirmary filled with the smell of disinfectant, his best friend had fallen asleep beside him.

And he was still alive.

Yu Haibara was still alive.

Suguru Geto closed his eyes and felt the foreign object in his chest, curled quietly in the depths of his cursed energy core like a seed that had slept for a thousand years.