Picking on Satoru Gojo

"Thank you."

Suguru Geto smiled as he accepted their blessing.

"Like grass in the mountains, a breeze at the harbor, the moon at night... wholehearted love isn't something you can fake.

When you truly receive it, you feel as though the whole world is gazing gently at you, accepting you."

He sighed softly and continued:

"Before, with that unreachable 'Paradise' in my heart and the so-called 'Greater Good' on my shoulders, I was always afraid.

I was afraid that if I gave up halfway, got married, had children, and lived an ordinary, happy life, one day I'd grow complacent, and the ideals and curses I'd once carried would turn on me and burn me to ashes.

So I never dared to return her feelings... I really have owed her an apology all this time.

Now that Dio has stepped forward, raised the banner of reform, and shown us a path that can actually work...

I feel like I can finally set down the burden on my shoulders.

At last... I can live for myself and the person I love, without feeling guilty."

With that, he hooked an arm around Satoru Gojo's neck and tossed the question his way:

"Satoru, you're not getting any younger either. Have you ever had one of those moments with Shoko or Utahime... where you felt someone was 'gazing gently at you'?"

"Sh-shut up!"

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Satoru Gojo immediately wriggled free of his arm. The tips of his ears seemed a little red.

"After this conference, once everything settles down... I'll go ask them, okay!"

"Oh? Both at once?" Suguru Geto instantly seized on his wording and gave him a thumbs-up, his face full of teasing admiration. "That's our Gojo-sensei! So efficient!"

"...Not like that!" For once, Satoru Gojo was at a loss for words. He scratched his head and turned away, lowering his voice.

"With Shoko... we're too close. So close that neither of us seems interested in taking things any further. We're more like friends who give each other hell, or family.

But Utahime... maybe... there's a little... hope?"

"Ohooo..." Suguru Geto drew out the sound, wearing a knowing expression that said he'd seen it coming all along.

"Actually, I've always thought you and Utahime had this strange rapport, like no one else existed.

Though the way you show it... well, it's pretty unusual."

Just then, Kento Nanami, normally known for being serious and dependable, suddenly leaned half a step closer. He too lowered his voice and spoke with an air of mystery:

"Actually... I asked Shoko."

"Huh?!"

Several gazes burning with curiosity and a hunger for gossip instantly converged on him.

Kento Nanami made a shushing gesture, his solemn expression carrying a rare hint of youthful playfulness:

"Shoko isn't here today anyway, and it's just us..."

He looked around the group and stressed, "Don't tell anyone you heard it from me."

"Of course, of course!"

"Don't worry, we'll take it to the grave!"

"Come on, tell us!"

Only after everyone had tacitly gathered into a small circle, holding their breath and listening intently, did Kento Nanami repeat her words, almost in a whisper:

"This is what she said-

"'Honestly, falling in love with either of those two wouldn't happen even if the world turned upside down or the apocalypse came.

But after Geto left Jujutsu High, it really did feel like... Satoru and I both became lonelier.'"

"...So that's how it is." Suguru Geto rubbed his chin, a complicated mixture of understanding and guilt flashing in his eyes. "You can't force compatibility."

Satoru Gojo, however, immediately straightened his back and adjusted the little round sunglasses on his nose. His voice regained its usual, almost brazen confidence-or rather, narcissism:

"I knew it! I'm just too handsome and too strong. She's too embarrassed to confess outright, so she's using this roundabout way to say she depends on me!"

"...I think your interpretation went seriously wrong at some crucial point, Gojo." Kento Nanami narrowed his eyes and delivered his criticism without mercy.

"Getting back to the point," Atsuya Kusakabe, who was always straightforward and tended to take a more traditional view, steered the conversation back. He looked at Satoru Gojo with a conflicted expression.

"It feels like... you've always just been picking on Utahime.

Is that... really okay?

I mean, the way you interact every day-even if it's that... awkward little-kindergartner way of showing affection?"

"I do not!" Satoru Gojo immediately protested, his voice rising a notch, though a careful listener could hear a hint of uncertainty. "I always... stop before she actually gets angry! And afterward, I always apologize properly and make it up to her!"

At that, Suguru Geto nodded thoughtfully, a knowing smile curling at his lips:

"Oh? I see... now that you mention it, I think I remember something.

Shoko once told me that Utahime apparently said this in private-sometimes, if she gets 'just angry enough,' she usually... receives certain 'special gifts' meant to 'soothe her anger.'"

"So you really are flirting!"

Kento Nanami slapped his thigh, his tone brimming with the certainty of someone whose suspicions had been confirmed.

"I've thought for ages that you two were playing some weird game of attack and defense-the kind only the two of you understand, like Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, going back and forth forever!"

"Why are you reading romance manga anyway? The art style doesn't suit your image at all!" Satoru Gojo tried to derail the conversation.

"I'm only twenty-six! Kaguya-sama is just a perfectly normal manga serialized in Young Jump. You're in no position to lecture me!"

Kento Nanami persisted, planting a hand on Satoru Gojo's shoulder as though trying to pin his perpetually mischievous senior firmly to the ground of reality.

"More importantly-start taking Utahime's hopes seriously!"

Even Principal Masamichi Yaga, usually so composed and imposing, couldn't resist joining the chorus of criticism.

With his arms folded, he fixed Satoru Gojo with a stern gaze, his tone carrying an elder's refusal to accept evasions:

"If I remember correctly, little Utahime... should already be thirty this year, shouldn't she?

Satoru, how much longer are you going to keep 'toying' with her like this? It's about time you gave her a clear answer."

Satoru Gojo looked unusually embarrassed and scratched his head. "Come on, Yaga-sensei, I'm not that kind of irresponsible guy.

I'm the head of the Gojo Clan, and I've never even been in a proper relationship."

"Is that so?" Dio joined the pile-on with a smile.

He folded his arms and spoke at an unhurried pace, but every word struck home:

"If you had excuses before-things like 'I'm busy with work,' 'I bear the weight of being the strongest,' or 'Jujutsu Society can't do without me'...

Now that Geto, Yuta, and I are sharing those burdens, none of them hold up anymore."

He took two steps closer and lightly patted Satoru Gojo on the shoulder. The gesture was friendly, but his words gave him no room to retreat. "How about... we help you work out a plan?

We can put our heads together. After all, when it comes to handling this sort of thing, you seem... not quite worthy of your title of 'the strongest,' do you?"

Finally unable to withstand the barrage from all sides, Satoru Gojo raised both hands in surrender. His ears were so red they looked ready to bleed, and his voice carried a rare note of flustered indignation. "Enough! Stop ganging up on me!"

He spun around, trying to escape their encirclement, and tossed back, "Go bicker among yourselves! Forget about me!"