Suguru 's new technique is a boon if he 's ever seen one. It makes missions even easier when he 's got a new, long range weapon in his arsenal. Forced to rely on it while he slowly rebuilds his curse inventory, it takes only a handful of weeks for him to get more than adept.

'Y 'know, I can 't believe you haven 't gotten more piercings yet, ' Satoru says, head hanging off the end of the dorm 's living room couch and legs kicked over the back, mashing away at Suguru 's DS in the simplicity of the late afternoon.

It 's been a lazy day, with just a single mission he 'd been asked to carry out. Sure it 'd been down in Minato, but distance isn 't exactly a problem for him, and they 've had a rare unbusied week with half of their missions going much easier than normal- spent mostly on homework and catching up on reports. He 'd woken up early to deal with it and had been back by the time Suguru and Shoko had been groggy, sleep rumpled, and fighting over the coffee pot.

'What the hell would I get? ' Suguru asks, shrugging, jostling his head with the movement where it sits on his shoulder. 'I 've already got six. '

'Dunno, ' Satoru tones, scowling when he gets the puzzle wrong again.

'Fuckin ' Link, '

he thinks, bitter that a Zelda game from before the 3DS is kicking his ass. It still beats doing any real work. He 's got a record going with Yaga for how many months of the school year he can get through without turning in a single assignment before the man explodes. 'You 'd look good with a barbell. ' Three months is his current record.

'A what? ' Suguru asks, craning his head up to catch his eyes, and Satoru slides his gaze away from Wind Waker to meet his charcoal colored stare, perplexed.

'A barbell? ' He repeats, scrunching his nose when Suguru only keeps staring, one brow raised. 'What the hell do you mean 'a what? ' You have six piercings. '

'Yeah, on my earlobes, ' Suguru argues, reaching up to pinch his nose until Satoru sticks out his tongue to lick him in the hopes of grossing him out. It only gets him a scoff and light smack.

'You 're a

poser! '

He laughs, lurching his head away when Suguru tries to wipe his hand down his face, grinning at the idiocy of it all.

'I never claimed to be goth, ' Suguru protests, and Satoru slides the DS safely away from the couch on the floor as he lets himself be captured in a headlock, his hair ruffled until it 's a tangled mess.

'Poser! ' He shouts, struggling uselessly as he gets the sole of one foot jammed against the curve of Suguru 's shoulder, folding in half like a pretzel on the edge of the couch.

'Get a room, ' Shoko calls, shuffling into the kitchen, and Suguru snorts, nabbing one ankle as he yanks. They go toppling onto the long carpet covering the hardwood, tussling uselessly as dust clings to their shirts. Shoko ignores them, the sounds of the coffee maker and the smell of unpressed grounds filling the kitchen over their indignant shouting, her third pot of the day.

'You should get one, ' Satoru pants, Suguru 's palm shoving his head into the wool below them while yanking on his arm with the other. He 's heavy sat on his stomach, immovable even without relying on genuine strength or cursed energy.

'What 's it look like? ' Suguru asks, and Satoru shakes him loose, batting his hands away as he reaches up, sitting on his elbow as he pinches the shell of Suguru 's ear.

'It 's just a bar, ' he explains, 'goes through the sides of your ear, up here. ' Suguru stares down at him, a contemplative look on his face, head tilting as he thinks. 'Maybe get a helix or two while you 're at it, ' Satoru tacks on, grinning when he twists his hips, shoving Suguru off to the side and reigniting the pointless grappling.

He remembers that Suguru had shown up in their first ear with big black studs, and only later had gotten actual stone gauges in their second. It 's been a thought in the back of his mind since August when he toppled into this odd world, weird when he 's so used to conflating Suguru in his memory with gauges and big earlobes.

'How do you feel about sneaking into the city tonight? ' Suguru asks later, hanging in his doorway an hour after their shared dinner, hair still damp from a shower, and Satoru smiles wide.

'I wish I could fuckin ' teleport, ' Suguru grouses, as they meander down the streets of Tokyo, dark from the night sky and glowing with the city lights. Satoru only smiles, whistling in a way he knows is annoying as he twirls around the cover of a manhole.

'I 'd say reach for the stars but you 're distressingly average, ' he rags, intentionally provoking to stir up some fun. It 's honestly been pretty boring so far, he can admit, with the most interesting thing he 's done as of late is kick that living volcano 's ass.

It 's odd, when he remembers doing so much more when he 'd originally been a kid and set free from his cage. By second year, they 'd already gotten their hands on drugs and beer and fake ID 's to buy adult magazines, weekends spent so high they 'd touched the clouds and the sole reason he refuses to go near anything alcoholic. This time around, he 's been too busy being fucked up for Shoko to insist on finding a dealer for an ill-promised experiment. He hasn 't even heard a single hint about anyone being caught with a joint, a miracle with Nanami almost a third of the way into his first year.

'I 'm sorry, did six inches say something- ' Suguru retorts, and he whirls, hissing as he claps his hands over stupid, smirking lips.

'That 's low, ' Satoru gripes, kicking the toes of the beat up converse that used to be Suguru 's into the heels of his own, ducking when he 's swiped for with one arm, the acrid smell of cigarette smoke winding between them.

'Below the belt, to be specific, ' Suguru snarks around the one in his mouth, and he can 't help but bark a laugh, sidling around him to bump their shoulders together as they walk. It 's a lot like he remembers it- busy and lit bright and full of people going places, hanging around on the stoops of buildings, or interwoven with groups of friends.

It 's almost a shame that Shoko blew them off in favor of texting Iori. He knows she has a soft spot for downtown Tokyo, even if her undiagnosed alcoholism had been a strong influence for it once.

They chatter inanely as they wander, poking around for shops and places, dressed like teenagers for once in puffy coats, beat up shoes, and old shirts. Suguru 's black jeans are ripped to hell, evidently bought whole and torn over time, worn thin with use and fights. His own clothing is nowhere near as used- everything is soft and relatively new and expensive as hell, when he 's never quite broken the habit of buying from wealthier stores since plastic fibers give him headaches faster than overclocking his eyes would.

'Who d 'you think would be your type? ' Suguru wonders, as they putter onto the conversation of dating again, an item tied up forever but still kids and curious. 'I mean, if I wasn 't. '

Satoru raises one brow, cocking his head as he slides his eyes to his right, finally a matching height with Suguru that he knows won 't stay for long the longer he eats right, already having had to buy new pants twice. 'Dunno, ' he says, thinking. He likes pretty people, but he is a pretty person. He likes Suguru, but that 's a given.

'Tall dark and handsome? ' He snickers, swinging right back when Suguru shoves him, rolling his eyes as he blows his bangs out of his face.

'Quit being annoying, ' he says, stuffing his hand into Satoru 's coat pocket and threading their fingers together inside of it, rolling his cigarette to the other side of his mouth with his tongue. 'I mean what do you think you 'd like? Really? '

Satoru pretends to think for a moment, remembering the one instance where he 'd tried going to a bar in the hopes of hooking up with someone in the year after Suguru had left the first time, just to feel something that wasn 't a drowning apathy. He 'd found a woman, dark hair and darker eyes and curvy hips, and hadn 't even wasted money on one lust-bought drink before he 'd chickened out.

'Tall? ' He says, trying to picture a person he could love that isn 't just Suguru. It 's difficult, when the only person he 'd ever been able to trust had been Suguru. Being the most powerful person walking for over two decades had put him in sort of a box, when he hadn 't been able to rely on the continued safety of anyone he 'd hypothetically get involved with. When Suguru had let him go, he 'd taken any chance of avoiding a lonely life with him.

'I don 't know. People are pretty, but I just like you. ' The flimsy answer gets coal eyes boring into him, narrowed and unimpressed, smoke curdling into their air before them like foggy steam.

'You are such a sap, ' Suguru grins, sharp and knowing, always seeing more than he ever wants him to. 'Fine- forget types. If you could, who 's the kind of person you 'd wanna fuck on a hookup? ' His face has an amber glow in the city lights, warmed by his newly stolen technique and eyes glimmering like jewels, sixteen and fearless.

'Oh, that 's easy, ' Satoru says, because he can do casual, imaginary or not, 'fat ass, big hands. '

Suguru snorts, clapping a hand over his mouth as he coughs, choking on his cigarette, tugging them to a halt in the lazy traffic of the sidewalk and taken by surprise. Satoru stands ambivalent to the sight they make as he waits for him to remember how to breathe, a flowery smile on his lips and eyes hidden behind black glass as people pass them by.

'Yeah, ' Suguru mutters, when he 's done coughing out his own unanticipation and nicotine like he 's a chain smoker, 'you would say that. ' Satoru only stands beside him, perfectly rosy and unbothered.

'Says the masochist- ' He starts to trill, and Suguru cuts him off with a kick to the back of his knee that makes him stagger when he 's already inside the cloak of infinity.

'If I 'm a masochist then what the hell are you,

sadist? '

Satoru grins at the tease, laughing, swinging their steps side to side as he sways them, punch drunk on the high of just getting to be kids again. Of talking about dumb shit together and doing dumber shit, not worrying about a thing in the world save for getting back before sunrise.

'Some special brand of fucked up, probably, ' he says, cheery and contented, and drags them to a stop outside of a small awning under neon lights. 'You still want a new piercing? ' He asks, blinking to his right as he watches Suguru 's eyes land on the display in the window, interested and curious.

'You still wanna pay? ' He snarks, even though his eyes don 't leave the windows and the pinups plastered to them of tattoo designs and catalogs of earrings.

Satoru snorts. 'I 'll take that as a yes, ' he says.

It 's almost a little hilarious- he sees it happen, the moment Suguru falls head over heels for the idea of doing more than just a barbell, the little pound of his heart as its desires morph and change. They barely make it into the front of the small shop, stood at the battered wooden desk and asking after a walk in appointment, when Suguru 's eyes become glued to the girl rattling off a price to them and her giant, pink crystal gauges.

'I changed my mind, ' he says, accidentally interrupting her, and Satoru smothers a snicker as his face heats like a lava lamp, far too fast and way too hot.

'Chicken out? ' She drawls, the slit in her eyebrow breaking it in half as it raises, and rapidly, Suguru shakes his head.

'Those, ' he asks, thumbing his own earlobe, 'what do you call those? Gauges? ' The girl 's eyes narrow slightly in dawning realization, before a small smirk is ticking up her lip, bottle blonde hair tousling when she curls it behind her ear.

'Yeah, gauges. These are rose quartz. You interested? ' She asks, and Satoru bears witness for the second time to perhaps the first visible impulsive decision Suguru has ever made in either life.

'Absolutely, ' he declares, dark eyes shining.

It takes less time than he 'd thought for the piercer to set them up- considering it 's only about nine at night it 's not so surprising, when the bustle of beyond sunset is only just starting. He swipes his card when he 's asked as Suguru ends up tied up into a conversation with front desk girl about gauges and sizes and,

'I was thinking on a barbell, too, '

and,

'oh really? You think you could handle two in one night? '

and,

'I 've already got six. '

All told, it 's enough chatter about the inner workings of piercings that he doesn 't really care to listen in on it.

'Tag along? ' A lanky man asks, covered in tattoos and sanitizing together a tray of needles and pokey looking things that would have made him squirm, once.

'Apparently, ' Satoru answers, watching impassively behind black glasses with his hands hidden in his pockets as Suguru listens avidly to whatever desk girl is talking about, batting away the words of piercing care and materials and whatnot. There seems to be a lot to it- he thinks he can remember that there were intricacies to stretching out earlobes that Suguru had kept up with that he 'd conveniently never really paid attention to. He doesn 't now, only because he knows he 'll hear all about it later.

'You wanted something too, or are you just moral support? ' The man asks, obviously twenty something and a degree of relaxed that Satoru has only ever dreamed of being. He goes to open his mouth to say no, that he 's just the checkbook, when he pauses, thinking. The little shop is deceptive with its grunge aesthetic, but he 'd seen the halfway open velvet trays full of sparkly looking earrings when they 'd walked in.

He 's never had his ears pierced, never been tattooed, never done anything other than exist the way he is, unlike Suguru and his freedom towards his own body.

Don 't reject God 's gift,

they 'd told him, over and over when he 'd tried to cover his eyes with anything but his hands. He 's never had his ears pierced, never been tattooed, but he 's always liked shiny things.

'...Yeah, ' he finds himself saying, the word slow and gaining interest like the sludge of maple syrup falling out of the bottle the longer it drags. 'Do you have sapphires? ' He asks, already knowing they do, and the man huffs an amused laugh as a low smile tugs like a smirk at his lips. He gets off his little rolly stool to go pull out one of the jewelry trays, bringing it to the side of the backroom where they linger for him to look over.

'Most of these are lab grown, ' he explains, pointing through dainty looking studs and tiny little hoops with one gloved finger, 'the pure metals are in this section, and the alloys here. '

Satoru lets his eyes wander over the third of the selection he knows exists, probably all of the shiny things they have to offer. They 're all nice- clearly either glass or expensive artificial crystal structures, blue and red and green and gold, silver backed for the most part and separated by their designs. It 's not Swarovski or Bulgari by any means, not luxury or classy wealth or a statement rather than just a pretty rock. They 're just shards of cut glass, of home-grown gems, little and dainty and meant for nothing more special than sitting in someone 's ears.

They 're perfect.

'What 's your opinion on aquamarine? ' He asks, just to talk, and the guy laughs a little.

'It 'd match your eyes, I 'd say, ' he says, and Satoru blinks up, looking over the rims of his glasses at the man 's face.

'Ito, '

his name tag reads, and he spends a second thinking a little longer, before deciding that he wants to try something new.

He wants this to be different. Why shouldn 't he be, as well?

'I want to do four piercings, ' he says, bringing his fingers up to tap each earlobe, 'two on each side. ' He 's never been a stranger to impulsivity, not at ten and not at twenty and not at sixteen in either age he 's lived it.

'Sure? That 's a lot of irritation, ' Ito asks, setting the tray of sparkling crystals on a nearby tabletop, sitting back down on his rolly stool as he wheels over to the padded chair.

'Yeah, it 'll be fine, just use plain silver or something, ' Satoru tones, crossing his ankles as he falls down onto it without a sound thanks to the whisper of infinity, already trying to remember the amount of cash in his wallet. It 's definitely more than enough to buy a lot more than just a handful of piercings. He 'd started keeping the habit of stuffing enough money in it to buy a small business after the second time he 'd been stuck in another foreign country after an overseas mission, and the management in charge of getting him a visa had gotten the date wrong.

'I don 't care about pain, and I 'll pay you in cash if you do 'em right now, ' Satoru says, tilting his head until his snowy hair is falling down into his eyes, and Ito chuckles a snort, even as he pulls his tray full of pokey things closer on it 's hinged half-table.

'Alright, little man, ' he agrees, gesturing Satoru closer, and with a slight exhale, he lets infinity fall. 'Your friend- he 's got Suzu excited. He ask about gauges? ' He sits still as Ito eyes his right ear, a thin tipped dry-erase marker held in his hands as he centers it before making one dot, and then another.

'And a barbell, ' Satoru explains, and gets a knowing, 'ah, ' for it.

'It 'll be a pinch, ' Ito says, before his gloved hands are reaching up to tilt his face further to the side to line the needle up to his ear, the touch expected and yet still something he has to tamp down on a jump at. The hands are alien, a stranger. He feels the press of its sharpened point, the puncture as it slides through, the pain that would be pain if he hadn 't felt so much worse.

It is weird to have a metal rod through his ear as Ito slides in a plain silver stud, before tugging it back out again. It 's interesting to feel it in his skin when he 's not used to it, a little itchy almost and odd, but something he could get used to over time. 'Guess you weren 't kidding, ' Ito clucks as he pushes through the second, smaller silver stud, leaning back as Satoru doesn 't say a word about it, turning enough for him to reach his left ear.

'Is it supposed to hurt? ' He asks, genuinely clueless, and Ito shrugs.

'Yes and no, ' he answers, poking the needle through the first piercing on his left lobe, eyes focused on where he slides in the third silver stud. 'Some people think it does, some think it doesn 't. Four is generally a lot for one sitting when you 've never gotten any before. '

Satoru absently hums, staring out at the back of the small shop where he can faintly make out the noise of a tattoo machine whirring behind a closed door, the flicker of two civilian 's cursed energy, faint and wane compared to Suguru 's a couple of meters behind him, as bright as the sun.

'Maybe I could come back and get one for every eye, '

he thinks, and crumples the sardonic smile before it can appear on his face. Wouldn 't that be something to make of God 's gift.

'Saline solution on each of those twice a day for about six months, ' Ito implores, handing over a small bottle of solution that Satoru takes, 'dab it on gently with a cotton ball. Stinging is pretty normal for the first week or so. '

'Okay, ' he says, slipping the saline he won 't actually be using into his coat pocket, tilting his head back and forth at the smidgeon of new weight. He digs his wallet out after he 's taken a second to get used to it, metaphorically running his tongue over his teeth as he scopes out the newness, thumbing through the bills inside for a loose couple.

'Here, ' he says, fanning the perfectly flat money in Ito 's general direction, 'that should cover four piercings. I 'll pay separately for any earrings. ' Ito takes them with a nod, thumbing through the numbers before his eyes are bugging out, mouth opening to say something about it, but Satoru 's already getting up and meandering away.

He 'll heal the wounds once he gets back to the school, confident he can keep the holes intact with a little messing around with reversed cursed- for now, he likes the faint rawness of them, a quiet reminder that he 's done something new with his life. Suguru 's a murmur in the background of his thoughts, being poked for his own new piercing while he leans over the velvet earring tray, scanning down colors and gems and metals and shapes.

'I can 't fucking pick, '

he thinks, lips thinning in annoyance at the sheer volume of selection.

'I could just buy all of them, '

he muses, but discards the thought a moment after he has it. He has no wants for plain metals, and he knows himself- Suguru 's jewelry box alone isn 't going to last the both of them much longer.

'Satoru- ' Suguru calls, and he turns his head, dark hair catching his eye and drawing it to the two new things in Suguru 's earlobes where he 's curled his hair behind, small and round but bigger than a regular earring- though sans barbell, even though he thinks he can spot a helix on his left. He cuts himself off, lips parting as he stares, and it takes Satoru a moment to figure out why.

'Oh, ' he says, bringing one finger up to tap the side of his ear as he tilts his head, smiling. 'You like 'em? '

Suguru 's hands twitch at his sides, like he wants to touch his face but won 't in such a public setting, even though it nearly seems painful. He fights down a grin as Suguru still gets closer than a friend would, seemingly enamored at the little silver studs decorating his ears.

'You just got these? ' He asks, quieter, something a little like love or awe making his eyes shiny, because the both of them know that he 's never really cared one way or another about piercings unless Suguru 's involved. Satoru nods, lifting a foot to gently kick his calf, tugging on Suguru 's coat sleeve as he talks.

'Help me pick out a couple of pairs, ' he asks, tilting his head in the direction of the tray, 'I can 't choose. '

Suguru grins at that, his indecisiveness comfortably familiar territory. 'You have to get the sapphires, ' he declares, pointing out the tiny little name card with equally little characters penciled onto it. 'The aquamarine, too. '

'What about onyx? ' He asks, Suguru 's dark eyes a night sky he 'd be happy to be lost in, and sees the disgusting affection melt his expression in real time.

'I think you 'd look good with them, yeah, ' Suguru murmurs, and Satoru gives the moment a little bit of time to exist before he 's shoving his hand into Suguru 's face, ruining it entirely.

'Gross. You gotta pick out some too, right? ' He asks, eyeing the small, black glass studs in Suguru 's ears that he doesn 't know the name for, only remembering enough to know that they 'll only be worn for a little while before they 'll turn into bigger sizes.

'I didn 't get the barbell, so they 're paid for, and Suzumiya-san already gave me a starter set- ' Satoru lets him ramble, content to bask in the rush of words and the glow of elation making Suguru 's cheeks flushed and his eyes bright.

He ends up buying no less than ten pairs of studs and hoops- all sparkly and bright save for a single set of onyx gemstones, set in gold studs and as dark as the night sky. Ito only sighs the second time Satoru hands him a wad of cash way overblown for just a couple of earrings, obediently shutting his mouth when he 's intentionally cut off from saying that he overspent.

Shoko whistles when they tumble back into the dorms maybe three hours later, admiring the new piercings for a long moment before she 's waving them off to go back to her movie, nearly melting into the sofa as she taps away at her flip phone, more entertained with Iori than with them. They giggle like children, tipping down the hall and drunk off of freedom and rebellion and being all of it together.

He does end up healing them in the morning when he remembers to. The silver studs are kept in Suguru 's jewelry box with all of his other shiny earrings, plain and simple, but the firsts, and therefore special. Yaga makes a blatant, passive aggressive show of not saying anything the next morning about how they clearly snuck down the mountain when he shows up with onyx studs in the fronts of his ears, the aquamarine crystals tucked behind them.

It 's distracting enough that he forgets entirely to yell at Suguru about the gauges for a solid two weeks.

'I still think it 's bullshit, ' Suguru says, ducking under a branch as he follows Satoru further into the forest two weeks later, skeptical and haughty for it. He pulls the blindfold off, shaking his hair out as he blinks his eyes open to the world, smirking a laugh.

'You 're bullshit, ' he throws back, mind wandered far away from their shared words as they stumble into a clearing, lit by the light of the moon and silent save for the quiet whistle of wind through the trees. Even the noises of Tokyo 's bustling city are deafened out here, dampened by the trees and the undergrowth.

'Mature, ' Suguru drawls, leaning up against the trunk of a tree, watching as Satoru turns a wide circle within the clearing, staring up at the sky washed black from the light pollution of the night-dazzled city lights.

'You 'll eat your words, ' he says, no real threat to them as he lets his eyes fall shut, senses expanding around the hum of cursed energy that saturates the world. Suguru 's a bright, star-like flare behind him a few meters, burning like a fire with Jougo 's cursed technique. The few fodder curses he 'd picked up within the city as they 'd wandered to their latest mission site are restless in the intangible place they buzz, a part of him but not quite, and a reminder of the sweet things they 'd bought to eat more than anything.

'Limitless, '

he thinks, remembering how he 'd used to reach for that well of power, how he 'd drag a fingertip down the seam of space-time to make a domain,

'it 's only Limitless. '

He hasn 't made one since he jumped, too busy being out of his mind and then oversaturated with the power he 'd held at twenty-eight compared to fifteen. His first incomplete domain had been around sixteen, and his first complete one past seventeen, after reversed cursed technique had become a permanent fixture in his palms. Megumi had beat him, something he 'd lorded about to anyone who would listen but really only just himself when he 'd heard, incessantly proud that he 'd managed a working, incomplete domain at fifteen with one of the most difficult inherited techniques.

He 'll get there even sooner this time, if Satoru has anything to do with it.

A breeze stirs around him, the air catching on waves of his cursed energy, flaring wide and bright as he tries to direct it in a body that has no memory of ever using it this way. It 's a little difficult in the same way that it 's an easy, familiar habit; new and yet old, odd and yet a recurring action.

'Domain expansion, ' he murmurs, so Suguru will hear him, watching his cursed energy shift with his sudden investment. The incantation feels heavy on his tongue when he speaks it. 'Infinite Void. '

The world shatters, shuddering as it rumbles around him, and Satoru opens his eyes, startling in a silent gasp at what he sees. It 's '

bigger.

It doesn 't look like the domain he knows, as it finally settles into the pit of the void, a refraction that 's constantly twisting and changing rather than a stagnant image. He laughs, disbelief and shock breaking the sound of it into barked fragments, spinning on the soles of his feet as he looks over the writhing nothingness mixed with everything.

'It 's not a single universe anymore, '

he realizes, awe parting his lips, grinning as he watches Suguru stumble and fall onto his ass behind him, sitting on a plane of empty space. His eyes are blown wide, a frozen sort of emotion dropping his mouth open. He 's got a reason to.

His domain is no longer just their universe. It stands, uninterrupted and whole, a fractal of the multiverse itself.

If he watches, he can see glimmers of other timelines, flashes of people and places, humanity and earth and things he can 't even begin to comprehend, possession of the Six Eyes regardless.

'What could have caused it to change? '

He thinks, and already has an answer, one that comes in the memory of a split throat, blood dribbling from his mouth, sunlight on his skin.

He inhales sharply as his domain changes to reflect his thought, the indistinct images of blackness dripping red scattering around the infinite twisting of the space- something he can 't tell the shape of yet, stuck between a tesseract and a hypersphere continuously being inverted and folded. Images scatter within it, old bones and things he can 't place and blue eyes and people, before it 's fluttering back to randomized things again, taking the ease of his breath with it.

'H-holy shit, ' Suguru stutters, wobbling up to his feet, looking a little nauseous as he stumbles closer. 'How did you even-? I thought you couldn 't manage an incomplete one yet? '

Satoru silently starts to shake his head, struggling to tear his eyes away from the world of his own creation. The rippling images all around them start to change with Suguru 's question, scattering into stills of his original domain, the mass of their singular universe stretched out into infinity with Sagittarius-A in the background, still and colorful and a black hole watching the world.

'Never mentioned it, ' he murmurs, the words an afterthought as he reaches out a hand to steady Suguru where he wobbles like he 's standing on a balance beam, reaching back as he teeters on nothing at all. He 's silent watching the still of his domain as he knew it flickering away, the last of the person he 'd been before the prison vanishing with it.

His own face starts to reflect back at him, different older and younger and other and same. Hundreds of versions of himself scatter like fireworks into smoke among the reality carving a space in front of them, and Satoru remembers to breathe in when Suguru 's hand squeezes his own. An echo of a laugh chimes throughout the constant motion, familiar because it 's his own- a face materializes with it, fleeting and real and him, before everything had changed and he 'd become someone else.

It scatters away before Suguru has more than a moment to reach out as if he could touch it, fingers outstretched in darkness to meet nothing, because nothing is really all that 's there. 'It 's like a film reel, ' he murmurs, and his words have memories flashing in front of him as if on a screen. Megumi and Tsumiki he catches, between the pops and blurs of color. Nobara, Suguru himself. Shoko, rolling her eyes at them when they 'd left for their latest mission a few hours ago.

There are others he doesn't recognize, people he could claim as those he knows, but just different enough to be refractions he can 't place for certain. Places twist and swallow each other, locations he does and doesn 't know.

'It 's not a film reel, ' Satoru says, slowly shaking his head as he thinks of Suguru and what he 'd looked like as an adult, in those ten years they 'd spent apart but never that far away. 'It 's a universe. '

Cold eyes whisper into existence as the words leave his lips, Suguru 's face as he remembers it before the stitches peering down at him from an old memory, stood on a cliff face overlooking the city when they 'd been twenty two and less hurt.

Satoru,

he mouths, without a sound, tired and enemies and yet still in some sort of love.

'A universe? ' The Suguru at his side repeats, staring up at a person he could become, a kind of wonder making his dark eyes wide.

In front of them, Suguru as he 'd known him vanishes away, swallowed up by the ever writhing movement of the hypersphere of his domain. The colors all twist again, warping into moving pieces of his original, blue and big and still and yet rippling.

It 's amazing, Satoru knows. He 's never heard of any sorcerer 's domain radically changing before- nevermind a Six Eyes and Limitless user 's. It 's possible that he 's managed to stumble into an unfound aspect of his own technique, just as incarnations before him stumbled onto the power of Blue, and Red, and eventually Purple.

'What exactly would it do to an enemy? ' Suguru muses, slowly trailing them in a languid circle as he walks around Satoru, their clasped hands turning him with the unhurried motion. 'Show them their worst fear, or something? '

Satoru opens his mouth to answer, to tell him how when given everything, no one can do anything, and feels something warm and wet trickle slowly down the skin of his cupid 's bow, a coppery tang filling his nose when he inhales sharply. He doesn 't quite get to make it that far.

Immediately, black starts to block out the writhing of the hypersphere like burning film with the question induced thought, huge chunks of the world plummeting into darkness as it begins to fill with skeletons, and Satoru panics. Worst fear, Suguru had said. He misses the days when it used to be living his life as a clan head, ever on his own.

In the absence of anything at all, he sucks in a breath, eyes ripping between the cracks in the hypersphere that slowly fill in with nothingness, bones scattering like afterimages and a whispering hiss gnawing at his ears. His eyes widen in shock as he catches a glimmer of dirtied white hair in the corner of his vision, and without thinking, Satoru rips his hand out of Suguru 's to shatter the domain before it can go any further, fracturing up its edges and bursting it into millions of tiny pieces like a popped, crystalized bubble.

Something else pops in his head as it breaks, warmth spilling over his lips.

Suguru yells as he starts to fall, stopped by Satoru 's hand in the back of his jacket, floating a few meters above the grass of the forest. The lights of the city come back into sight as a glimmer above the tree line, shining and jarring against the black that had taken over. He stares out at nothing at all as he catches his breath, mind filled to its brim as he thinks about all the implications this new domain creates.

'What the hell was that? ' Suguru asks, still dizzy as he slowly sets his weight back down onto his boots, jacket following after him as Satoru lets him go, the taste of metal filling the back of his mouth. He hovers for slightly longer over the grass, before silently sinking back down to his feet, lips pressed into a line.

'...Just an old nightmare, ' he says, bringing a hand up to rub the back of his wrist under his nose where it bleeds, sluggish and dark and slow from the strain. He watches the moving pulse of the city through its starlit cursed energy, letting Suguru nudge his shoulder as they turn to leave.

'Some fucking nightmare, ' he mutters, leaning a little into his side as Satoru glances to his right to catch Suguru 's eye, 'I think my brain 's melting. '

He snorts, pushing down the thing that makes his hands shake as he stuffs them in his pockets, blood and all. The change to his innate domain is 'interesting, aligning eerily closely with his current theory of timelines and swapped universes. Either way, it 's likely something he won 't be relying heavily on with Purple and Red waiting around to be used.

'The way it changed, '

he thinks, eyeing their shoes as they step in time.

'Every thought I had, it reflected the ones that stood out the most. '

He doesn 't know what to think about that, other than that he knows he wants not a soul to see the monsters in his head yet.

How can anyone else face them if he can 't even look them in the eye?