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December, 1989
The day the balance of the world changes, Toji buys an engagement ring.
He’s still standing in front of the jewellery store when his phone rings, the dark blue box secure in his pocket, brushing against his side as he shifts. He shouldn’t take the call, he knows. He’s left that life behind and he doesn’t plan on ever going back. Not when he has something infinitely better to go home to.
He takes the call anyway. Hitomi wants to have kids someday and Kong Shiu is the only person Toji thinks he could maybe bully into babysitting. Best not to cut him out entirely. As soon as he accepts the call, Shiu greets him and Toji stares blankly as a flyhead flutters above, strangely bigger than any he’d ever seen. He pokes at it with a finger and it twitches, ready to bite before he pulls away. There’s something in the air that doesn’t feel quite right, today. It pricks at his skin like a buzzing hive and Toji almost expects a grade-one to jump out at him all of a sudden. Briefly, he wonders if some great tragedy or natural disaster happened nearby and he just hasn’t heard about it yet. A tsunami or an earthquake, perhaps. Something large and destructive enough to feed curses for miles.
“There’s a bounty,” Shiu says and Toji finally bothers to pay attention.
“You know I don’t do those anymore.”
“I know, but I had a feeling this one would catch your eye," Toji can almost hear the smirk in his voice, “even if you don’t take it. I figured you might want to know.”
He sighs. “Just spit it out. I have a date in an hour.”
“The Six Eyes user was born today,” he says “curses are already growing stronger.”
Toji feels more than hears a laugh escape his lips. He tilts his head back as a bird-shaped curse circles the air above him. His natural disaster theory wasn’t too far off, then. Somewhere out there, Naobito and the rest of the Zenin clan are probably pissing themselves. Toji’s smile widens. He wouldn't be too shocked if one of them was secretly funding the bounty on the little brat’s head.
“Millions, then?”
“Pretty much. We could probably sell the eyes for twice that, too. Maybe more if there’s actually six of them. You could take that girl of yours out on a real date.”
Hitomi had never cared much about money and he knows she’d gut him like a fish if she ever found out how he’d come across that particular fortune. His smile softens at the thought and the box in his pocket feels almost warm as it brushes against his ribs. It isn’t an option. Not even close to worth it.
“Still not interested.”
“Well, if you change your mind...”
“I won’t.”
Just like that, Toji hangs up. And yet, he still finds his eyes glued to the screen, Shiu’s number flashing across his brain. He’s not going to do it, but he could. Defective and worthless as he may be, he could do it. Succeed where so many are inevitably going to fail.
The baby would be easy, obviously. And even for a monkey like him the Gojos aren’t all that impressive, not without their precious Six Eyes. They are influential, however, and they would do anything to safeguard their little golden goose. Well, anything short of keeping their god-in-the-making’s existence a secret, pride and prestige always came first, after all. Nevertheless, they are bound to hire the best sorcerers the jujutsu world has to offer as bodyguards. And Toji knows he can beat them all. It would take some planning, sure, but his chances are high. To watch their faces, the best of the best being taken down by something as useless as him. It would be magnificent. His fingers glide over the soft velvet of the box in his pocket. Magnificent, and entirely worthless.
Toji has a date to go to anyway. And, if everything goes well, a wedding to plan.
Above him the bird-like curse from before flaps its wings. It looks like an overgrown pigeon that got runover one too many times, with rotten grey feathers and a twisted sagging beak. A grade-three, potentially grade-two, that just so happens to be flying towards the restaurant he is supposed to meet Hitomi at. Toji can’t risk that.
Today’s evening has to be perfect.
All in all, the ugly bastard’s not very hard to kill. It takes longer to lure it into a secluded alley, though. And he still gets a few concerned looks from the odd passerby. Best to leave the area before someone decides to call the police on the crazy man doing parkour and stabbing at the air with a knife. The curse, while not a serious threat to him, had been more troublesome than he expected.
Stronger than he thinks it would’ve been just the day before.
Perhaps, he really should’ve taken that bounty. Now he’s going to be late for the most important date of his life and he’s fairly certain it’s all the Six Eyes’ fault.
January, 1993
For years, he tries not to think of the Gojo spawn. He’s no longer Zenin Toji, the Sorcerer Killer, but Fushiguro Toji, Hitomi’s loving husband. For the first time in his life, he is truly, completely and hopelessly happy. Hitomi is happy, too. They’re doing well and life is good, better than he’d ever hoped it would be. He really shouldn’t be thinking of some stupid brat with magic eyes.
And yet, he still does, sometimes. Whenever he sees a curse lurking in the shadows that should be far weaker than it actually is. Whenever he looks into the mirror and sees a sad pathetic child that used to spend hours wishing for just a fraction of that power.
A toddler who probably doesn’t even know how to tie his own shoelaces and they all treat him like Susanno-no-Mikoto rendered mortal. Toji has killed special grade curses, he’s killed some of the best sorcerers of his generation and yet he’s still nothing but a monkey. Worthless and useless, never good enough even as he kills them all.
Is that brat really that special? The very pinnacle of sorcery itself?
The question irks him, droning on and off like a particularly persistent mosquito. He just needs to know, to scratch that itch of curiosity and resentment. Just to see what all the fuss is about. It’s nothing bad, even Hitomi wouldn’t be against it. Probably. He doesn’t tell her.
Instead, he waits until she’s asleep to turn on their shared computer. He doesn’t usually look for bounties himself, but he still remembers the days before he met Shiu when he had to find his own jobs. A few minutes of browsing and he finally comes across the bounty. 100 million yen staring back at him with that same repulsed gaze of his memories, back when his clan still deigned to look his way. There’s a couple pictures underneath, taken from afar and blurry. A child with pale skin and cotton-white hair. Toji doesn’t really care. The eyes are closed, though. In every single picture, despite the fact that the brat is clearly awake and walking, they’re always closed.
Disappointing. Ironic, too. Since the eyes are the only reason anyone even cares about the kid. It makes Toji think, though. No one quite knows how the Six Eyes work. Naturally, sorcerers always try to keep their techniques as vague as possible, but Toji is fairly certain not even most Gojos fully understand the Six Eyes and just how much they can and can’t perceive. Rumour and superstition say they can see down to the atom, stare through the walls of reality and peer into the very depths of one’s soul. All flowery bullshit, really. Pointless speculation. If you were to ask him, Toji would just say that they see too much.
Enough, perhaps, to be just a tad overwhelming. To kill the Six Eyes, Toji thinks that might be a good strategy. Surround him with so much cursed energy he won’t be able to focus on anything, then go for the throat. Strike quick. Vicious. Do as much damage as you can and don’t forget the head.
Hitomi, Toji realises, would be horrified and the ensuing guilt guides his hands as they turn off the computer. She’s always been too good for the world of sorcerers. He’s endlessly lucky to have her. A far greater blessing than even the Six Eyes and the Ten Shadows techniques put together. And yet, Toji can’t quite deny that there’s a part of him that feels inadequate. A foolish, pitiful child that still yearns to prove himself to a wretched pantheon of wannabe gods.
But Fushiguro Hitomi is waiting for him in their shared bed and Toji knows she’s worth more than all the gods in the world.
November, 1996
It takes six years after he gets married for him to finally see the Six Eyes in person.
Hitomi is away on a business trip and Toji is in between jobs. There’s nothing to do for a whole week and it makes him think. They don’t live far from the Gojo estate. It wouldn’t be hard to stake out the place. Security has been lowered around the Six Eyes, or so he's been told. Shiu complained to him in passing that the brat is now able to detect assassins better than any of his bodyguards. He's lost quite a few clients because of that apparently. Whether the little freak can use the Limitless properly, however, is still unclear. The price on his head isn’t going to go away until he does, though.
Toji knows all the important clan leaders have already gone to see the boy, to marvel at the legendary Six Eyes that might just choose to kill them all some day. Briefly, he wonders what Naobito thought of the brat, wonders if he looked at him with any of the thinly veiled distaste and vitriol Toji could never truly bleach out of his mind. Wonders which one of them Naobito hates the most; the Zenins’ greatest shame or the Gojos’ greatest pride.
It makes him all the more curious.
He’s just going to take a look. It’s not even weird, really. People line up to watch eclipses and meteor showers and those happen several times per century, the Six Eyes are a couple times per millennium sort of event. And the Gojos don’t seem to mind showing their golden child off to the other clan heads like some endangered animal at a zoo. It shouldn’t be a problem then for a monkey like Toji to take a peek. Satiate his curiosity just enough to kill it. He’s heard so much about the brat’s awe-inspiring all-seeing eyes that the truth is bound to be disappointing. People often are, in the end. Sorcerers even more so.
Those people are not worth your time, Toji, Hitomi’s voice echoes in his head. He thinks she’d be disappointed. He is just not quite sure why when he’s not planning to kill anyone. He’s not some assassin trying to carve out the kid’s eyes to sell on the black market. It’s just a one time harmless indulgence. He’ll probably forget all about it in a week or so, anyway. No one else will ever know about it, either.
It’s fine.
And because it is fine Toji digs out the most decent traditional attire he can find in his closet. Fancy enough that it could pass for a servant’s at the Gojo estate. Well, sort of. It’s a bit shabby and there's a hot sauce stain Toji can't be bothered to wash out. Still, he doesn’t expect anyone will even register his presence. All someone like him truly needs to blend in is the bare minimum.
As expected, sneaking into the Gojo’s stupidly showy garden, that's more akin to a whole-ass forest, is nowhere near as hard as it ought to be. It’s almost funny how no one’s managed to kill the Six Eyes already. Toji’s taken down enough clan sorcerers to know they tend to be overconfident to a fault, so perhaps it is not all that surprising. From there, it's all a matter of surveilance and investigation. Listen to the gossip of the servants, find the places with the most guards and follow the tiny child sized footprints in the snow. Easy as breathing, like humming the rhythm to a worn out tune.
He first sees the brat from behind, walking with a woman that might be his mother or a simple caretaker. The kid is small and white haired and altogether unimpressive. It almost makes Toji feel like an idiot for wasting his time with this. Hitomi would for sure call him a moron, giggling at her husband’s stupidity in that annoyingly endearing way of hers. After, that is, she berates him for stalking a kid like some kind of creep. Ah, he thinks, perhaps I really shouldn’t tell her.
Then, the Six Eyes finally turn towards him, eyelids lifting up like a blade just before it's brought down for a killing blow. It shouldn’t be possible for someone to spot him like this, yet there it is, that endless expanse, a vast and depthless blue. Toji can almost make out the outline of clouds circling those pupils, irises set alight by an unearthly glow that’s too bright to be the moon and far too cold to be the sun.
For just a moment, Toji feels like a curse about to be exorcised.
And then, the blade falls, pale skin and white lashes plunging down to hide that awful, never-ending blue. Six Eyes turns and walks away. The first sorcerer to see him, to notice him, and he walks away. A child skimming through a book he doesn’t care to read. He doesn’t even bother to warn the woman at his side of a potential assassin. It’s almost enough to make Toji reconsider his plans. He can tell by the way the Six Eyes’ shoes kick at the snow underneath that the distance between them is breachable. Finite. He could do it. Kill the brat.
Just as quickly as it comes the thought evaporates. If the little freak doesn’t deem him a threat, it’s because he’s stupid. Arrogant, as befitting of the pinnacle of sorcery itself. It would be pointless. Too easy to be be worth it. Briefly, he wonders if the Gojos ever threw him at a pit of curses and told him to survive. Toji had already proved them all wrong several times over.
With a scoff, he turns away.
On his way home, he decides to steal Hitomi a bouquet of flowers. A surprise for when she comes home. Besides, the Gojo clan has plenty to spare. Roses are too cliche, he decides. Lilies and hyacinths perhaps, any colour but blue.
December, 2002
Once his son is born, Toji has already forgotten all about the Six Eyes.
His son, his boy, held in the arms of the most perfect woman he’s ever met. It makes something impossibly warm burst in his chest, like a hearth coming to life in the coldest depths of winter. The line between sky and earth, ever so stark before, feels entirely meaningless. He doesn't know if his son is a sorcerer, a monkey like him or another looming god, but it doesn't matter. He's a blessing all the same.
Hitomi, tired and sweaty, but still perfect, beams at his choice of name.
“Megumi,” Shiu Kong will repeat months later, doubt oozing out of his voice until a resigned shake of his head disperses it all. “I’m guessing you guys really wanted a girl, huh?”
Turns out, it really doesn’t take that much effort to convince Shiu to babysit for him. Hitomi had been sceptical, as she was of all his acquaintances, but Toji had been able to reassure her that Shiu was harmless. He would never bother to get his hands dirty anyway and Toji thinks that's good enough. Hitomi had been too exhausted to argue. A sure sign she really does need a break.
It’s only a few minutes of small talk before Shiu brings it up. Hitomi is still getting ready for their date upstairs and it’s just the two of them. Probably why Shiu decided to breach the topic now.
“You know,” he starts, “that Gojo bounty is still up, higher than ever, in fact. Now that you have a kid, you should reconsider your finances.”
“Gojo?” he frowns, why would he care about those idiots?
Shiu, meanwhile, looks at him like he’s suffering from a grievous brain injury. “The Six Eyes. We talked about this a couple times before? Balance of the world upended and what not?”
In the very back of his mind, Toji feels a memory cluttering about like some old trinket, a creepy little child and a pair of eyes so blue they might just drown the world. He stares down at the baby in his arms and Megumi yawns, unimpressed.
“Right,” he says, mirroring his son with a yawn of his own. “I’m still not interested.”
“If you say so,” Shiu shrugs. “Just out of curiosity, you think you could do it? They say Gojo Satoru has mastered Infinity already.”
“Who knows?”
There are ways to bypass infinity. Not many, but Toji knows of a cursed tool that might do the job. It would be doable, he thinks, with some careful and artful planning. Poison, perhaps. Not enough to kill, but enough to dull the senses and blunt the mind. Alcohol could be an option, too. Although drunken sorcerers aren’t always easier to kill, Toji has a feeling the heightened perception of the Six Eyes would not pair well with booze. Exhaustion or sleep deprivation might be the better option, though.
Toji has to admit he quite likes the idea of tricking his target into weakening himself just for him.
For a brief moment, he wonders what the Zenin clan would do if they heard about it. Only then, the baby in his arms fusses and Toji sets him down on the nearby crib. It doesn't matter. He's not doing it.
“You were thinking about it, weren’t you?” Shiu smirks.
“Shut up.”
Soon, Hitomi comes down the stairs and Toji forgets all about the Six Eyes once again.
July, 2006
It’s a particularly low moment when Toji loses all his money on horse racing. Well, particularly might be a bit too generous a word. He’s been losing a lot as of late. But that’s a road that leads down to a knotted mess of memories and regrets he’d rather not touch with a ten foot pole. So he doesn't.
He no longer has any ties to anything or anyone and that’s exactly how he likes it.
Money, that’s what he needs. That’s what matters. As soon as he’s got that, he can bet on the next winning horse and double his fortune. Toji used to be a lucky man, after all.
The Six Eyes, he realises, would yield him the fortune he needs. Enough to last him a while even with his losing streak, maybe enough to bring about a winning one. Kong Shiu picks up on the second ring.
“You still got that bounty?”
“I have a lot of clients that might be interested in your services. You’ll have to be more specific.”
“The Gojo job you’ve been hounding me about for years,” he huffs.
Shiu suppresses a laugh and Toji suppesses the urge to punch him. “You really have the worst luck, don’t you? That bounty has been inactive for over a year already. No one really thinks killing Gojo Satoru is even possible anymore.”
Toji sighs. He supposes he should’ve expected that. Of course, the annoying brat would perfect his technique while Toji was inactive. A sharp grin pulls at the corner of his lips regardless.
“Impossible, huh?”
Infinity is not unreachable, he knows. Red and Blue he could handle. The Six Eyes might notice him, but he’s fairly certain he can work around that, old thoughts and ideas carefully tucked away in the recesses of his brain, now begging for attention.
“Feel free to try, if you want,” Shiu says. “But I don’t have anyone that’ll pay you for it. And fair warning, Gojo’s classmate is another special grade. Controls curses. If you go after the Six Eyes you might have to fight that, too.”
Toji scoffs, blessed or not, he could handle a couple of spoiled brats. He’s been killing curses since he was five anyway, no special powers required. And maybe no one else would be able to do it, but that just makes the fire inside his chest burn brighter. Naobito would be squashed like a bug under the weight of infinity. The whole Zenin clan would be reduced to a tiny pea-sized ball by a simple application of the Limitless. All but him. No one believes a monkey like him could kill a god, but Toji’s been proving people wrong his whole life, hasn't he? An image flashes before his eyes. A smiling woman with spiky hair holding a baby in her arms. She had thought he’d make a good father, once.
“Do you need money for Megumi?” Shiu starts “Is that…”
Toji hangs up.
He doesn’t have ties to anyone or anything, anymore. No tethers. No chains. What was he thinking anyway? He’s left everything behind. The Zenin don’t matter. Neither do the Six Eyes or the Ten Shadows. He’s not going to take a job if there’s no guarantee of payment at the end. That’s not who he is, not his true self.
The Six Eyes can go fuck himself, for all he cares.
In the end, all his financial problems are solved when the Zenins contact him. They want the Ten Shadows and they’re willing to pay. There’s no real reason to say no, so Toji takes it. They transfer him half the money now with promises that they’ll pay him the rest when he gives them the kid two years down the line. At last, he truly has no attachments. Nothing at all.
It takes him less than a month to gamble away all the Zenin money. Just in time for Kong Shiu to come to him with an offer from the lunatics of the Time Vessel Association. Kill a girl, they tell him. A girl that's under the protection of two other teenagers, brats everyone thinks are invincible. Toji remembers blue eyes and white hair and a sorcerer so powerful he changed the world just by breathing. The Inverted Spear of Heaven is already floating neatly in his inventory, ready to go.
For the first time since she died, Fushiguro Toji's smile rings true.