The Innocent Spring That Was Lost Forever

the innocent spring that was lost forever

spoilers for: jjk0, ch236, s2 shibuya arc (relating to stsg)

doomed from the start, geto was born with a cursed technique that literally required him to absorb, and fucking consume the waste from human society in order to get rid of them, to protect the non-sorcerers, geto has to wolf down rags of vomit n shit and fill himself with the trash of humanity so the humans can live.

satoru on the other hand was seen as a god, he was quite literally untouchable. he is all white hair and blue eyes — untainted. he was worshipped, even when he was just a child, as the future head of the gojo clan; no one has ever seen him as gojo satoru, he was the strongest since people found out he had six eyes and limitless, his childhood was stolen away because of his natural strength; naturally he also doesn’t have to hide his feelings with a customer service smile like suguru does.

‘no one is allowed to take youth away from young people. it’s unforgivable.’ (he was an abused that didn’t become the abuser)

and that’s why him and suguru clicked together so well, suguru was the only one who didn’t treat him like an anomaly, and suguru had the ability to keep up with him too.

‘we are the strongest.’

the star plasma vessel incident

now picture gojo and geto (not to mention the absolute satisfaction suguru would’ve felt when he was put on par with the gojo satoru) two teenagers sky-high on their horses, having never come across a single person that was strong enough to even challenge their power, then comes toji fushiguro, some guy with zero cursed energy and some metal weapons, then he absolutely decimated them and left them traumatised.

this isn’t to put down heavenly restriction, as we can see, toji and maki are both strong as shit. but just imagine the strongest duo being destroyed by this toji guy.

gojo on the brink of death figured out reverse curse technique, but before that, he dies first.

then we get to see what geto would have done if satoru did actually die, and this is one of those few universes where we don’t really need a reversed AU to figure out what he would’ve done instead.

immediately, without hesitation, geto brings out all the strongest curses he has absorbed and fights with all his might against the guy who killed satoru.

of course he doesn’t succeed.

he gets knocked out, and by the time he wakes up again, satoru has already finished the job (whose ego just shoots up even more. ‘throughout heaven and earth, i alone am the honoured one.’) and here comes the turning point.

when gojo was carrying riko amanai out the room of applauding people, he asked suguru ‘do you want to kill them all? the me right now probably wouldn’t feel a thing.’

and suguru answered ‘forget it. it’s pointless.’

at that moment, when they both faced death and almost crossed the border, satoru decided to use suguru as a moral compass, and whatever suguru says, goes.

a lot of people blame yuki for the turning of geto suguru, but i think it was that sentence that gojo said, it was probably the first ever mention of such an idea in geto’s head, even if he doesn’t realise it. and it’s ironic, that geto was gojo’s reason of staying righteous, but not the other way around. but it’s also what makes satosugu more tragic and even more beautiful.

‘geto was gojo’s first and last blue spring of youth.’

geto’s spiral

from then on, it all goes to shit. other than the ‘separation anxiety’ geto has from gojo, there’s the death of haibara, then the discovery of mimiko and nanako; it wasn’t yuki who put that maybe into his brain, she was just solidifying his already existent maybe, she’s just the messenger.

to a certain extent, i think toji is also part of the reason why geto calls non-sorcerers monkeys. he fostered a hate for them because the man who robbed them of their innocence was a person without cursed energy, it also explains why he’s particularly mean towards maki in jjk0

he loses weight. but it’s just heat stress. he’ll be fine. (sometimes, i wonder whether gojo ever blames himself for not pressing harder, that maybe if he did, geto would still be there with him.)

‘satoru has become the strongest.’

(hope u noticed the symbolism with the healthiness of the beta fish and that one looks at the fish and the other doesn’t)

kfc breakup

their youth officially ends in front of kfc. when suguru decides to leave jujutsu high and live his own way of life.

‘it’s just that in a world like this, i couldn’t laugh from the bottom of my heart.’

then in jjk s2, we see the truth. it was a sunny and breezy day, and from suguru’s perspective, all is well, gojo stands out because he’s gojo, and that’s it.

‘are you gojo satoru because you’re the strongest, or are you the strongest because you’re gojo satoru?’ (which was given an answer to in ch236, it’s the latter)

again, in jjk0, when gojo held up his hands, ready to blast suguru into pieces, his hand is sluggish, the movement is slow, and it shows that satoru is tired, he’s grown hopeless, he didn’t know what to do, he gave up.

but then in s2, we’re shown the reality again, the movement is like every other one, he’s angry, he’s frowning and he’s shouting, unlike the quiet in jjk0, he puts down his hand fast.

it’s the one thing satoru can’t do. even though letting him go is against the law, he’s supposed to arrest a curse user, but he can’t, how can he?

jjk 0

it’s been a decade before satoru sees geto again. but even then, gojo still recognises the scent of his curse energy, without hesitation.

and it’s sad, the first sentence gojo says to him is a threat, to take his hands off his students.

during the night parade of a hundred demons, gojo was able to save his students because he still knows geto like the back of his hand. he can see through his plans because he’s suguru.

so when finally, suguru is dying in the alleyway, it’s an intimate scene. even us, the audience isn’t allowed to intrude, we’re zooming away, and gojo’s lips move and only geto hears him: ‘at least curse me a little in the end’ (because geto long thought gojo lost his trust for him)

‘we’ll meet again, right?’

then it’s a flashback, to gojo’s first time letting suguru go, and the next time they see each other, gojo has killed suguru; even then, he’s still reinforcing his ideology: ‘i really hate those monkeys’ but even then, satoru still sees him as his best friend— ‘my best friend is the one who picked it up, my one and only.’ (despite geto not believing it.)

so gojo really meant it when he said ‘love is the most twisted curse of them all.’

shibuya arc

suddenly satoru sees geto again. they were the strongest duo, and they were so close that kenjaku wagered their entire plan’s determinant on how gojo would react when he saw geto again.

(this is why gojo vowed to never be emotional in a fight ever again, revealed in ch236, because geto’s burial from his emotional attachment is why the shibuya arc even exists)

satoro’s love isn’t one-sided either.

‘how can you let yourself get used like that, suguru?’

and just like that, geto’s body moved on its own because protecting satoru is like second nature, so much so that even his corpse alone can do it based on purely muscle memory.

ch236

during gojo’s visit to the limbo (hopefully not permanent) he said he would’ve been happy if geto was there to pat him on the back. after some more than 10 years, satoru never truly got over suguru. on his death bed, not even, he’s still thinking about suguru.

2nd gen satosugu— itafushi

that is an analysis for another day, but i think the sadistic gege might just end itadushi in the exact same way satosugu was ended. sukuna might just use megumi against yuuji in just the exact same way, and if he does, goodnight.

masterlist