Chapter Text
[1 Nov, 2018; 03:46 am; Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Shibuya]
Under the Tokyo sky amid the rubble and the half-destroyed Shibuya Station, silhouettes in dark robes loaded the wounded into cars.“Who the f*ck are you?” Wiping the blood from his lip with his sleeve, the guy asked angrily.
“We were just passing through, to be honest," she said with a smile tucking a stray red curl behind her ear and lighting the last cigarette from her pack. “It had been one hell of a long day. Y/N, let's go home already."
The night air blew across the boy's scarred face and it seemed to him that even his eardrums were damaged because he never heard a single gust of wind. Nor did he hear the footsteps of the silhouette next to him. "Hey!" girl's whisper made Itadori come to his senses. In front of him stood a girl seemingly his age, with blonde hair hidden by a black robe. Though she wasn't wearing any kind of mask either, from something he couldn't make out her eyes. “Here, take this," she tried to shove some kind of paper at him. The girl paid no attention to the fright in the boy's eyes, nor to his pose ready to fight, but was still trying to find a pocket in his clothes to shove the piece of paper into. "Call me if you need help," the same girl's hurried whisper barely uttered the phrase before it’s owner disappeared from sight. It took some time before Yuuji came to his senses. Trying to figure out if he was hallucinating under the stress of what had happened, he shoved his hand into his pocket trying to find what the stranger had shoved in there. Pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket, he carefully unfolded it and stared at the symbols. A phone number. A very ordinary phone number.
Not hallucinations.
[9 Nov, 2018;, 02:31 pm; Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Chiyoda Special District, on the way to Cafe N].
You turned to the blonde girl holding her hand so you wouldn't lose her in the crowd of people rushing about in the center of Tokyo. "Dany, if ya wanted to eat so badly, why couldn't we find a closer café?“ Your peripheral vision kept picking up unfamiliar facial features, the gestures of people talking on the phone, flowering plants scattered in the flowerbeds and neon signs especially invisible in the daylight. If it weren't for the girl pulling you fiercely in the direction of the café, it would have seemed nothing more than a beautiful fake.
"Of course we could, but, first of all, we never take the easy way out," she raised her fist in the air and began flexing her fingers as she listed. “And secondly, people say about some really great Yakiniku here.” You just hummed in response making it clear that you weren't interested in that at all. Although, everyone who knew you at least a little bit knew about your passion for food and many people took shameless advantage of it.
When you opened the door to the café the doorbell alerted everyone to new visitors. Stepping inside, you felt the warm atmosphere. Quiet pleasant music, dim lighting, soft cozy chairs, textured wooden tables, on the walls there were frames with some photos and handwritten inscriptions with warm words. As your gaze clung to the furnishings, Danielle waved her hand at someone sitting at a far table. "What the..." you had time to think before one of the boys, black-haired with small circles under his eyes wearing a white jacket that resembled some sort of school uniform got up from the table and headed towards you. As soon as he changed his position you saw the person sitting behind him. A pink-haired kid. The same kid who had been in Shibuya. You grabbed Dany's hand and immediately stormed out of the cafe."Y/N, wait!” Danielle tried to get through to you, but you stubbornly pulled her away from the place. “I'm the one who gave them the number to contact us in an emergency!” sensing that you hadn't heard a word she said, she pulled her arm out forcing you both to stand in place. “I said wait!”
The black-haired boy who had been running after you all this time repeated her request. "Please, wait!" he stopped beside you, bent down and wrapped his arms around your sides trying to catch his breath. You stared at him silently in anticipation. When he looked up at you, your gaze made him fade and a pale blush broke out on his young cheeks. “I'm sorry. We don't know who else to turn to, but we really need help right now,” his hand went into his jacket and he was ready to pull something out, but you stopped him. "Not here," you said, and nodded your head toward an unremarkable alley. As soon as you started toward the direction you'd indicated, you stopped Danielle. "Not you, young lady. You wanted Yakiniku so badly, so why don't ya go back to the cafe?” you tilted your head slightly to the side and smiled letting her know that this was as far as she could go. Though she pressed her pink lips together, she didn't contradict you.
Your footsteps were accompanied by the sound of drops falling from the drains. The alley reeked of damp, filth and poverty. The shabby walls covered with obscene inscriptions seemed about to collapse. Walking a couple more meters down the wet road, you stopped. Turning to face the boy and smiling to ease the tension between you, you leaned your shoulder against the wall. "First, introduce yourself.”
"Yuta. Okkotsu Yuta, student at the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical college," he said in a low voice, rubbing his fingers together.
"Too formal," you chuckled. "What would a student of this college want with my student?” you emphasized the word 'my', but without any anger or irritation in your voice.
Yuta pulled a dark cube out from under his jacket and held it out to you. "Here," you raised your eyebrows in surprise and stared at the boy, waiting for further explanation. “I know it's hard to believe, but there's a man in there right now. And that person is our teacher," the boy exhaled convulsively. He felt the way a five-year-old feels when telling his parents about the scary monster living under the bed. Yuta didn't know who you were. Do you know about cursed energy? About curses? About the sorcerers who fight them? Would you believe him?
You were already twirling the cube in your hands, examining it from every angle. "Okay, let's say it's true," there was a stitched eye on one of the dark edges and judging by the tactile sensations, the frame itself was made of leather. “But what do you want us to do?”
"I wish you'd get him out of there," the boy said, still dumbfounded that he hadn't noticed the way you'd snatched the prison out of his hands. “Please.”
"There's no other way to get him out of there, I take it," you ran the knuckle of your index finger over the stitched eye waiting for some kind of reaction. Nothing.
"No. All the items that could have been used to solve the technique were destroyed by the teacher himself," the boy lowered his eyes to the floor realizing how that sounded.
"That’s ironic," your laugh echoed in the alley. “All right, if you want us to get him out of there, I need at least a little more information, ya know.”
"We don't know much ourselves," the boy's frustrated voice hit your temples. “The only thing we know is that this is the other side of the gate," Yuta pointed to the cube with a nod of his head. "There is the prison realm itself.”
"Prison realm?” you asked with a touch of skepticism in your voice. “Where is it? Is it, like, a subterranean, a facility or is it—“
"No," the boy interrupted you, shaking his head. “It's the same cube, only lighter and there are eyes on all sides of it.”
"Are ya saying that your teacher is in two subjects at once?” With a voice excited with growing interest you asked the boy giving a slight nod in his direction.
"Dunno," Yuta apparently frightened by the sudden change in your mood, backed up a little. "Looks like it.”
"And this prison realm is now located...?” you paused waiting for Yuta to finish your sentence.
"Curse named Kenjiaku," Yuta watched your facial expression, which would probably tell him if you'd heard that name before.
"And let me guess what the catch might be," your voice, filled with sarcasm, drifted down the alley.
"There really is a requirement," Yuta muttered to himself. "The other side of the gate can only be opened in the immediate vicinity of the prison realm.
"Uh-huh," you wiped your face with your hand as if wiping away your disappointment. "Do you have a picture of that curse?" Yuta pulled out his phone and started frantically searching for something. As you watched at him, you couldn't help yourself and quietly put your hand on the guy's wrist that held the phone. "Yuta, calm down," your voice seemed very soft and soothing, and the boy looked up at you. "I won't bite." The boy nodded and smiled weakly back and the atmosphere immediately became more peaceful. After a few minutes, he handed you a cell phone with a picture on it. It showed a boy with fair skin and black hair tied in a tight bundle, though one strand of hair fell loosely over his face. A bright smile lit up the young face.
"He looks different now," Yuta interrupted your observation. "Most of his hair is loose, and his hair is longer. He's wearing something resembling a traditional kimono. There's a huge scar on his forehead." you silently listened to the young man, still looking at the photo.
You've seen this guy before. About a year ago. Pulling a case of headphones out of your pocket, you pulled one out and put it in your ear. The familiar sound of the power on reached your eardrums. "Meg, ya here?" you asked somewhere in the void.
"Here," someone replied mimicking a human yawn, it's voice sounded mechanical. "What does the mortal want?"
"Let's go find the city camera, Yuta," you said heading toward the street.
"I've seen one around here," the boy grinned and led the way. You could have done it without him, but you let him lead the way.
After walking a couple blocks, there was a traffic camera near a stoplight. You pointed Yuta's phone with the picture right at it. "Meg, see this mug?" you asked someone again.
"Distinctly," the voice replied.
"Can you look it up on city cameras?
"Copy that. If I find it, I'll text you the location right away.
"Deal," you handed the phone back to the boy, but you noticed that his gaze had gotten sad.
"Hey, what's wrong?" your voice was warm again like a dry summer wind.
"I don't know if I have a right to complain," you wondered at his words. After all, he was still a child, and he had every right to complain. "It's just that the teacher Gojo asked me to keep an eye on Itadori and the others in case something happened to him. And I don't seem to be handling it," the boy's shoulders slumped along with his voice.
"If you're standing here now, it's just proof that you're handling everything just fine," you gently tousled the boy's dark hair with your hand. "Don't ya lose heart. We'll figure something out," as you scrutinized the boy's skin, you began to notice healing scratches, bruises and contusions. "You know, go back to the cafeteria. Get some rest and good food. I take it the last few days have been hard on you. And we'll try to do something about it," you said with soft assurance in your voice, pointing at the cube.
"Would you have lunch with us now?" The boy asked with some hope in his voice.
"I can't, unfortunately, although I wish I could. I just don't like your pink-haired boy. Or rather, what's in him," you exhaled uneasily and Yuta stared at you with surprised eyes. As far as he knew, you'd never looked at Itadori up close. "But I'll walk you back to the café. I need to pick up Danielle anyway."
Walking through the crowd of the same hurrying people back to the familiar cafe, you looked at the colorful small paper lanterns on the windows of the place. From afar these crafts looked marvelous, but as soon as you looked at them closer, you could see the flaws: the glue was too much, a piece of paper was torn off and on the other lantern on the contrary there was too much paper. In fact, it didn't make them any worse. Probably because it looked like they were made by children. Well, it's really a family cafe.
As you tried to see Danielle through the window, you were relieved to see that she wasn't sitting at the same table as Itadori. You immediately wanted to kick yourself for thinking that. He wasn't a leper, and none of this was his fault, but keeping you all safe was your direct responsibility, which you were systematically violating. You were pulled out of your thoughts by Yuta's voice. "Thank you," he blushed faintly. "For coming and... for help."
"Too early for thanks," you smiled back. "But we'll celebrate sometime later. My treat. See ya later," you nodded your head toward the table where Yuji was sitting signaling that Yuta should go. The boy nodded back and hurried over to his friend. You went over to Dany, sighed like an old grandma and plopped down in the chair, threw the cube on the table, and stared at the girl, who was munching on a piece of meat with appetite. "So, my bun, how's it taste?" She looked from you to the cube and back to you then swallowed her food with a loud sound and nodded. "Eat, bun, eat, ya after such antics will not be enough to put a week of work in the canteen. There will be no time to eat there."
"Y/N!" The girl shrieked quietly with indignation and a touch of pity in her voice.
"And don't you dare try to pity me. I know those blue eyes of yours," you wagged your index finger in front of her face. Just as Dany was about to make the most pitiful face in the world and talk about love and mutual aid, you were interrupted by the sound of a notification on your phone. You reluctantly pulled your phone out of your pocket and stared at the notification bar. Your eyes widened slightly in surprise
[02:59pm] Megan: Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Shrine, exact coo...
"You're quite fast, though," you muttered under your breath.
You opened the notification and saw coordinates that are more precise. Would the curse, or whoever it is be hiding in such a crowded and sacred place? Seems completely ridiculous. Sounds the same. Anyway, you wouldn't argue with Megan, so it was a good time to go and check out who Kenjiaku was and what he was all about.
[10 Nov, 2018; 08:43pm; Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Fushimi Inari Shrine]
Walking up the mountain called Inari to the temple complex, there was a feeling of an invisible catch. For such a popular place it was strange not to see a single living soul, neither a tourists nor an employees of the complex. Since the eye couldn't get a hold of anything living, the attention shifted to the big picture. Thousands of toriis set up all along the paths of the temple complex standing so densely that they formed corridors. On some of them, the orange lacquer seemed already weathered, faded, though the black symbols that contained the name of the giver and the date were still just as black and bright. Outside of these arches, the caressing whisper of the forest could be heard. Throughout your journey through this place, you came across more than once sculpted images of kitsune standing at many small shrines that held keys in their mouths. It was amusing to contemplate how much people were willing to do to please an imaginary God.
Two things brought you to the main sanctuary of the complex: your sturdy legs and your stubborn nature. A small staircase flanked by familiar fox faces led you up to the gate of the shrine. The building was a traditional architecture of Shinto temples of Japan, which was characterized by simplicity and strictness of lines, a minimum of decorated elements. The only thing that caught the eye was the bright, rich red color. Having admired the view of the sacred place in the rays of the setting sun, your hands pushed open the doors.
As you stepped inside the building, you felt a kind of disappointment. Despite the beautiful facade the interior was almost empty making the space seem ridiculously huge. Yet, beautiful paintings adorned the walls of the temple, a few familiar sculptures stood in the corners and at the end of the room was a tall, but traditional Japanese table. As you ran your fingertips along the shelf, you could feel the dust settling on them. It looked tidy, but abandoned. It was as if the people who watched over this place had vanished into thin air.
The cracking of the rickety floor in the far corner of the room made you raise your head to look at the intruder. He was coming toward you, a man painfully familiar, reminiscent of the man Yuta had shown you the day before.
"Girl, aren't you lost?" the man gave you a warm smile. "The place is closed to the public."
You shifted your eyes from the interior and your keen but wary gaze slid unabashedly from the stranger's head to his feet, then you shifted your gaze back to his eye level. His smile wasn't warm. It was caustic like smoke from a campfire. "Actually, I'm here to see you. Or do you only take appointments?" your demeanor, as if by a click, changed to a friendly one, your face again lit up with a slight smile that was hidden under the black mask.
"Well, I can take such a marvelous person right now," the man said sitting down at the table at the end of the room and gesturing for you to sit across from him.
Kenjiaku rarely felt restless. Or rather, he rarely felt anything in general, but watching you walk with a calm gait towards a place where you would find yourself only a few centimeters away from him made him act a little more cautious. Though he was looking directly at you, he didn't sense your presence. As he gazed into your gut he realized he couldn't see or feel any of the cursed energy, not even the slightest manifestation of it. Though there wasn't a gram of the usual magic in you, your aura still made him feel a slight... discomfort. No more, no less.
Another one of the Zenin clan? There are too many differences. Outwardly at least.
"That's nice to hear," you said settling back into your chair. "I didn't realize curses could be so welcoming."
"Do you know who I am?" Kenjaku's voice had a slight aristocratic arrogance to it.
"Not really," you said with a shrug. Not wanting to waste any more time on small talk and greetings, you pulled a dark cube out of your backpack, which was laden with all sorts of colorful trinkets and placed it on the table right in front of Kenjiaku's nose.
"Oh," he replied with a fake disappointment in his voice. "I see".
"Well, since you understand then why don't you just give up the prison realm without all the strife and fights?" you asked trying to keep your impatience in check.
The sound of the man's laugh filled the temple room for a second. The curse understood your purpose, but he had no idea what tools you possessed to accomplish it. The whole thing was like a game of Uno, but without the constraints of any game rules and the players held the cards they came up with. "Well, if you're so eager to play, let's play," Kenjiaku thought to himself and taking a light cube with eyes on all sides from the folds of his kimono placed it next to your dark cube on the table.
The urge to immediately examine the unknown object made you lower your eyes to the artifact. Already the very appearance of the prison realm evoked extremely unpleasant feelings, maybe even odious, most likely due to the fact that the frame consisted of human skin. But you set aside your preconceived notions and began to consider the object from a theoretical point of view. The joints of the object looked perfectly straight, the planes of the faces were not distorted, though from the angle of your gaze, it would seem that they should be. The object itself seemed so light, as if it were weightless, and seemed about to break away from the surface of the table. From every angle, the cube looked perfect. But here's the catch: nothing is perfect in nature. And then something clicked in your brain. A trap without bait. "Isn't that too cheap a trick for a curse of your level?" you asked the man. There wasn't an ounce of challenge in your voice, more of a casual human interest.
"You did notice, though," Kenjiaku said with barely perceptible surprise in his voice. "Good. I suppose I could go a little further."
As soon as your eyelids closed to allow your eyes to refresh the visual information coming into your brain, at the same moment the space was filled with dozens of the same absolutely identical light cubes. They seemed to be everywhere: on the table, on the floor, on the few shelves, on the chairs and some of them occupied quite distorted position in space and stood on the edges, others seemed to be glued to the objects as if the gravitational field had changed, and the center of gravitation was no longer the Earth, but these very objects, and others were indifferently frozen in the air. You threw your head up and realized that the artifacts covered even the ceiling. Whatever the case, you should deal with problems as they came. As much as you didn't want to make small talk, you wanted to fight even less. So, small talk. "Aren't ya a Copperfield," you said, stretching the last word deliberately. "I'm interested in the secret of another trick," you looked away from the ceiling and returned your head to its usual position, staring into the dark eyes opposite. "You were killed a year ago. So what the hell are you doing here?"
"No one killed me," Kenjiaku looked away for a second as if remembering something. "You see, almost all of you out of my... How do you put it? Oh, yes," he flicked his middle finger and thumb, "League."
"Ya know, there are a few things that go against the laws of the creation," you said interlocking the fingers of your hands on the table looking at the huge scar on the man's forehead. "First is playing with time and the second is, oddly enough," you shrugged, waiting for him to finish his sentences for you, but it didn't happen. "Resurrection."
"I've never resurrected a person I've transplanted my brain into," Kenjaku said, his chin slightly pointed. "Though I have to admit, sometimes they do get in my way. Sharing a body with someone is hard, after all."
"Ya don't have to lie to me," you shook your head slightly maintaining eye contact with the curse. The tone of your voice didn't change, though it began to resemble a modest growing storm. "Besides, I didn't say anything about the bodies you're using. I was talking about you,"
A quiet but growing rough male laugh filled the room. "I've never resurrected myself," Kenjiaku said, still laughing mockingly. "It's just one of my techniques."
"You can call a dinghy a brigantine or a galleon," you said waving your hand lightly at his words. "It wouldn't stop being a dinghy."
"It doesn't matter at all," the man said shaking his head. "Even if the creation has its own laws, it doesn't seem to care who enforces them."
"Have you ever heard of systematic error of the survivor?" you asked tilting your head slightly to the side. "Or is the term too... human for you?"
"Yes, you're right," Kenjiaku continued adjusting the sleeves of his kimono: "I don't care much about humanity. Especially when you consider that humanity will soon cease to exist. At least as you are used to seeing it.
"Is there any use in asking you what you mean?" you asked raising an eyebrow. There was a visceral silence in the room. The curse either didn't plan to let you in on its plans or it was thinking about how best to present the information. You wanted the coin to fall on its lucky side.
"I'm gonna to make all humans shamans," Kenjiaku began. Bingo. "Of course, it won't be easy to unite all the people with Master Tengen."
"Who is Master Tengen?" you asked the curse.
"A sorcerer with immortality technique," the man said. "He also provides barriers for the Tokyo and Kyoto sorcery colleges," he added noticing your puzzled look, "His barriers prevent the flow of cursed energy from escaping, as well as providing protective functions.
"Nah, still don't get it," you said propping your cheek up with your hand.
"Of course you don't get it," Kenjiaku said, smiling mockingly at the thought of how stupid people can be. "All I have to do is merge my barriers with Tengen's.
"And yet, such transition would require an enormous amount of energy," you stated a fact.
"This is the most interesting part. A death migration will be organized to collect the cursed energy," the curse said savoring every word. "I will move the sorcerers to certain selected areas surrounded by their own barriers, so that they fight and kill each other. This is how the cursed energy will build up. They can't go beyond these barriers or they'll die. If the number of people in the area remains unchanged for twelve days, everyone within the barrier will die. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, " his smile became so wide that it seemed as if his jaw was about to break. "Cursed energy would build up even when non-sorcerers were killed."
"I thought it would be something interesting, but in reality it sounds like regular genocide," you were already hiding half your face in your hand, which your head was resting on, out of boredom. At first, you listened to his plan with enthusiasm, but the more he talked the more it all looked like the notes of a madman. Who's the fool now?
"And to further anger your creation, I will say that some shamans and even non-sorcerers will become vessels for shamans of past generations," he said, clearly trying to tease you.
"Whatever," you said leaning back in your chair and tucking your hands under the table. Your casual conversation had gone on too long, but the cautious plan still hadn't matured in your head. If you act directly, what are the odds of it working? Biological objects subjected to magic sometimes behave unpredictably. When you take into account the fact that the object theoretically contains a biological subject it further reduced the chances of success. Finally, you had no idea where the actual cube was, so the spell would be diffuse rather than directed. Without removing your hands from under the table, you joined the index fingers and thumbs of your hands so that they now formed a triangle. As soon as they closed, without giving you time for further doubts and thinking about the consequences your inner voice said:
"Offset."
Just as the curse opened its mouth to say something, in the silence of an instant there was a thud somewhere behind the curse's left shoulder. Your gazes instantly darted in the direction the noise came from. The fakes immediately dissipated as if Kenjiaku had lost concentration for a second, and turning his head back in your direction, he saw your sly gaze shift from the cube directly at him. You instantly jumped up from your seats, your hands on the table, and you said, without letting him get a word in edgewise. "It was a pleasure to talk to such an extraordinary person," you pulled away from the table and took a step back. "But I'll take my leave for now. Goodbye,"
With that, you turned around, opening your back, and headed towards the exit. "That sneaky bitch," Kenjiaku thought to himself. Now he was faced with two choices: attack you from behind or head for the cube revealing his own back. Both options were a lose-lose, he had done too much to accomplish what he had planned and he didn't want to stumble over something as simple as underestimating his opponent. He couldn't just take and pull the cube to himself since the one who was sitting inside strongly resisted it. So, the third option was to walk you to the exit and watch until your silhouette disappeared from the horizon.
Kenjiaku followed your steady gait slowing his steps as he approached the doorway. The starlight was almost gone only to return again tomorrow allowing time to run again. The sky was shrouded in all sorts of delicate shimmers, the soft hand of nature painting over the hard joints between colors making purples and vinous dance together. Only your outline grew darker and darker as you moved further away from the shrine as there was no more daylight left to reflect off of it. Ironically, while Kenjiaku was watching your shadow, you were already standing behind him. With the urge to stab him in the back and give yourself away, you lifted the prison realm with a slight movement and disappearing with the faint black haze, you were back to being the one the curse was watching so intently. "Yoink," you chirped, examining the light cube in your hands from all sides, your face lighting up again with a smile. "Well, boxy, let's go home," you didn't want to think how many reserves of luck you've exhausted today and how many of these reserves are still left. After all, it wasn't your fault that Kenjiaku hadn't been taught one simple truth: when chasing an enemy, don't forget to look behind you.
[20 Dec, 2018; 06:32pm; Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Tokyo Magic College]
Over the past few days, the very days that Gojo had spent in the cube, the magical college had undergone some changes and to be more precise, one huge change: when the teacher first returned here, he saw solid ruins. From the words of his students, he realized that it was the work of Kenijaku. The aftermath of their battle with Master Tengen the outcome of which had alarmed many shamans: Master Tengen was dead and the rat had escaped from the ship. The last slivers of Tokyo College were left without barriers, without protection and even without a principal. As of late, dark circles and small wrinkles began to appear under his heavenly eyes, his white skin becoming drier and tighter. Pulling on the mask of cheerful frivolity over the constant lack of sleep was getting harder. Every time he found himself in bed in the twilight tousling strands of snow-white hair with the fingers of one hand, Gojo unwillingly plunged into unnecessary thoughts and the thought that his students were almost the last thing keeping him afloat scrabbled pitifully in the back of his mind. He wanted to laugh at his own childish behavior because somewhere in his chest, in a place much deeper than the human soul there was an unfamiliar female voice that filled the entire absolute gut of the sorcerer with a measured sonata - that was really the last thing that would not let Gojo fall into oblivion.
With their own efforts, out of chips, planks and stones the students managed to restore the college's residential building. Of course, it was hard to see the former grandeur among the piles of construction debris and destruction, but the students valued this place not for its monumental architecture, but for the opportunity to be near each other. There was a consoling positive side to the whole situation: now the entire area of the college could be used as a training ground.
Ever since the day Gojo had scheduled the battle of the king of curses for December 24, he hadn't given his students a break. Even though he was seemingly confident of his unconditional victory he always wanted his students to become stronger. He was no longer shy about getting directly involved in the training. Since then, his students had not only become observers of his battles with curses, they had become sensei's "opponents" themselves. Gojo made them dodge, counterattack and even take on red, blue, black lightning and the whole arsenal that wouldn't result in death. There was no shame in even applying territory expansion a few times to let the students - their bodies and minds - get used to the highly unusual conditions during battle and sending them to places that registered even the slightest amount of cursed energy. Even though Gojo himself was the initiator of such intensive training, he was alarmed by the rapid changes in his students. Changes that were invisible even to his six eyes, but here was his sixth sense unpleasantly scrabbling claws at the back of his neck, not weak enough to forget about it, but not strong enough to give it much importance. The transformation wasn't bad, quite the opposite, the students were more confident, more adaptable, maybe even stronger. He had only been gone for nineteen days and while that was comparable to a lifetime in their world, it was not at all the length of time in which such a leap in transformation could occur. All their routine and conversations about everything went on as usual, but not until Gojo began to inquire, either directly or by subterfuge about who had gotten him out of the prison realm. The students all as one would start averting their eyes either sideways or upward pretending to try to remember something, but no matter the place or time, no matter who was now standing in front of Gojo the answer was always the same: "we don't know." Once again sitting at the lunch table, he began to gently question the students, but once again he ran into a blank wall. "Who would have thought my students would become so heartless in my absence? Not even you, Yuji. I didn't expect this from you!" sensei propped his head up with his hand glaring at the boy.
"And we didn't expect you to take an unscheduled almost three-week vacation right in the middle of a battle," the invisible assistant in the face of irony tried his best to help Itadori evade his teacher's tricky questions.
As powerful as Gojo was, he couldn't make truth serum. And he wouldn't use it on his students. Probably not. The only thing left to do was to sigh dramatically and accept his defeat, but he always had the last word. "Meanie!" Gojo left the room with his hands in the air taking all the sweets on the table. Whatever had happened in the end, once he was back in the world there was more work to be done, so it was high time he got to it.
***
[same time, ~2 hours difference from Tokyo; 04:32pm, Cambodia, Angkor region]
Climbing closer and closer to the sunlight literally from the depths of the Earth, among the dilapidated slab-paved roads, among the now-unpreserved columns that were once decorated with ornaments, surrounded by walls of fine-grained sandstone on which bas-reliefs of deities from Hindu mythology were occasionally found, you climbed the rocky wall, every now and then nervously checking your right pocket to make sure that what you came here for was still there.
"Damn Cambodia and its damn underground systems!" You shouted in annoyance to yourself as you continued crawling. "It's okay, just a few more steps and we'll be home."
Grab!
You clung to the very last ledge trying not to look down. The height wasn't scary to you and neither was the abyss you'd left behind, but who knows? Maybe just this once the darkness beneath your feet would have eyes.
Your legs pushed you forward relentlessly, light shone through the ivy-covered walls and you knew the way out was near. You pulled out of your pocket what you'd been running around for days and there wasn't a part of your body that wasn't aching from the eternal bumps and falls. Being clumsy sucks.
An elongated splintered sphere within which a tiny yellow core was visible through its orange shards - your eye was trying to study every part of the artifact, just in case it suddenly disappeared. "I wish I could squeeze you in my hand harder. But you're electrocuting yourself, ya know," you said taking your backpack off your tired tense shoulders to put the artifact away. In your pursuit of unbelievable objects you couldn't figure out if you were doing a good thing or if you were following your selfish desire to disappear somewhere on the ends of the Earth, but as long as the former coincided with the latter, you chased the intrusive thoughts away from you. The only thing you cared about now was that the artifact would be useful because many of them had fantastic, but for you absolutely useless properties and you were only interested in the second category: artifacts capable of releasing a huge amount of stable energy. The amount of energy released had to be so great that it had to be enough to power a small town. A notional compact power plant.
***
[06:39pm, Cambodia, on the approach to the capital Phnom Penh]
One of your delicate but wounded hands was gripping the steering wheel securely, the other leaning against the open window frame of the car. You couldn't deny yourself the small urge to stick your hand out the window and let the slightly damp but hot air flow through your fingers. You took your gaze off the road for a second and directed it to your hand, which was now catching the northeast monsoon, with the beautiful backdrop of Tonle Sap Lake in the sunset sunlight, which happily allowed people to set up floating villages on its restless waters. The silence of the rental car's interior was broken only by gusts of wind and your carefully crafted playlist, with each song your soul became more and more relaxed, but as soon as you were connected again, your phone was bursting with notifications. You weren't a fan of reading messages while driving, but something caught your eye.
[06:40pm] Itadori Yuji: Y/N, I can't keep quiet anymore teacher Gojo is asking more and more uncomfortable questions every day!!!
[06:42pm] Can we just tell him already? only 4 days away
[06:42pm] He started prying into my phone more than usual I cant delete the story every time, I cant even sign u in
[06:54pm] Y/N, r u there?
[07:01pm] I won't say anything without your approval but to make you feel bad know that your silence breaks my heart :(
You sighed inaudibly. Itadori had gotten what he wanted: your conscience had pulled the rustiest needle out of the farthest pocket and wasn't shy about stabbing you in the heart. But it wasn't because you ignored the boy's messages. Angry reproach for getting involved in all of this was just starting to brew in your head. Fortunately or not, your train of thought was abruptly interrupted.
[INCOMING CALL: ITADORI YUJI]
"Y/N, where are you? What took you so long to answer? I thought I was going to have a panic attack!" Yuuji whispered. "What's up? Can I tell him everything?
"Kid, tell me, have you gotten so rich lately that you make international calls?" you said with a chuckle.
"What do you mean international calls? Where are you?" Itadori's whispering grew louder and louder, panic rising with each word.
"In Cambodia, there was a—" you began to speak, but the boy cut you short.
"Eek!" Yuji ended the call in a hurry. You laughed as you typed the message.
[07:04pm] You: I'd hate to scrape off your bursting from impatience body off the walls, but don't say anything to anyone. Don't ruin first impression, see ya!
Only one thought was spinning in your head: you didn't want any first, second, or even third impressions.
***
Eager to pass the time until your flight back to Tokyo, you wandered through the center of Cambodia's capital strolling leisurely along one of the central boulevards. The evening air, mixed with the smells of fruits, freshly baked rice flour baguettes, fish sauce and river water filled your lungs. You decided to give your legs a little rest and after walking a few dozen more steps and not finding any benches, you sat down on the side of one of the stone flowerbeds, trying not to crumple or damage the flowers growing in it. Your gaze was directed toward the Independence Monument, which towered grandly over the center of the city in the twilight, but you looked through it into your own thoughts. In such moments, you could finally feel that same fragile calm that constantly eluded you in a daily routine filled with countless deaths and eternal pursuit. While you were on one side of the world tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear, on the other side of the horizon a sorcerer was striding toward his room, finally feeling the sleepy rush. Gojo stepped into the room closing the door very quietly behind him. The sorcerer's tired body as if filled with wet sand began to lazily and carelessly throw off his clothes, dirty from the day's countless training sessions and literally collapsed on the bed. As soon as Gojo closed his heavy eyelids, a familiar female voice echoed in his head making his heart clench painfully.
"Good night, boxy."
[21 Dec, 2018; 09:39pm; Japan, Aomori Prefecture, north of Higashidori village, hunters' headquarters]
You walked forward along the familiar road making your way through a forest of densely growing conifers. Through the cedar pines and firs you could already see a familiar cliff rising up surrounded by proud, impregnable cliffs against which the waves of the eastern sea were crashing on the horizon. The vegetation began to thin and you walked along the lower level of the cliff, straight to the entrance, which looked more like the entrance to a cave than to a dwelling. The darkness enveloped your eyes as you stepped into the huge crevice, and the further you went, the more you were guided by memory than by sight. You walked forward exactly twenty-three steps and turned clockwise thirty degrees and nothing but your sixth sense told you that you were right in front of the iron door. It was only on the third try that your tired hand found the key card in your pocket among the rest of the junk and you tapped your shoe to the ground in impatience and placed the card against the left side of the door at your eye level. The door creaked as it began to move aside, and as soon as you stepped inside, the mechanism returned the metal door to its previous position with the same quiet clank. You found yourself inside a bright, sterile room, no bigger than the smallest closet and after five seconds you turned your body exactly 45 degrees clockwise. After another five seconds, you did the same maneuver, and so on until you were in your initial position. An invisible speaker emitted three short beeps. The lines of your hand became covered in a dark walking haze and at the same moment an unpretentious but elegant dagger appeared in your hand. Knowing the whole procedure perfectly well, you pricked your finger and smeared a small amount of the secreted blood on the wall in front of you. The blood from the surface disappeared faster than three short beeps, the wall opened and you found yourself on the basem*nt floor of your house. The space was filled with carelessly standing boxes, in which lay both old worn-out clothes and cartridges of different caliber, construction waste, spare parts from different mechanisms, scrap metal, the smell of paint and acetone was in the air. Your feet were already leading you up the metal stairs, each step making a distinct clanking sound under your soles.
The quiet of the house was broken by the creak of the door opening, the rustle of shoes being kicked off, the clank of a key being tossed onto the nightstand and your barely audible hitching of breath. You stopped beside the nightstand and looked up at the mirror that hung above it. In the darkness you could only make out the outline of your upper face, a black mask always covered the lower part of it and the desire to take it off at least at home was rapidly diminishing every day. Once again, you bringing your hands to your face, stopped. After hesitating for a few seconds, you shook your head chaotically and lowered your hands. When you pulled yourself away from the mirror, you quietly walked further along the varnished wooden floor and wanting to know if there was anyone at home whose peace you might have disturbed, you asked somewhere in the void. "Meg, is anyone home?" you tilted your head up slightly waiting for an answer.
"Yes, Kyle's been waiting for you," the voice replied with a distinctly mechanical quality to it. "And so am I, by the way."
"Megan, I'm sorry, but you know I've been out of touch," you sounded justified mixed with exhaustion.
"It didn't bother you before," Megan said with resentment in her voice. Even after so much time with Megan you couldn't tell for sure if she was really feeling human emotions or if she'd learned to mimic them and used them cleverly.
"It was different," you said wiping your face with both hands, trying to push the exhaustion away. "Oh, who knew there would be an AI with feelings?
"I didn't just show up," Megan said. "You're the one who made me this way," she said forgetting for a moment that her original job had been to state dry facts and relay information. "Don't exaggerate," you grinned shaking your head slightly.
As you took a few steps further down the corridor, your peripheral vision caught a tall silhouette. Just as you were about to become alert, a switch flicked and a light illuminated the far room. In the light of the lamp the silhouette took on the distinct shape of a man leaning against one of the wooden columns. The cold light fell on the sharp features of his face; his temples and the back of his head were shaved, but from the top of his head his blue-black hair fell in random strands across his face covering his deep dark green eyes. Beneath the t-shirt and pajama pants, he was in excellent physical shape, the visible part of his arms looking taut and wiry. A dark geometric tattoo could be seen from underneath the t-shirt that exposed his collarbone a bit. Despite his arrogant look, your eyes met his warm gaze. "Oh, my God, honey, I missed you so much!" You jumped across the room and ignoring the guy, hugged the refrigerator.
"That's your style," the young man laughed not even trying to pretend you hurt his feelings.
"Sorry Kyle, I haven't eaten in days, food fogs my mind," you laughed with him and hugged him tightly.
"I know, hun. I missed you. And yeah, there's a surprise in the fridge," and while he was saying all that, he kept kissing the top of your head.
You looked at him in disbelief "It's just food, isn't it?" You turned back to the refrigerator and opened it with a jerk. As you looked around the shelves filled with food, your gaze caught sight of a clear box decorated with little bows and a huge cheesecake inside and several cartons of chocolate milk that stood next to it. You peeked out from behind the refrigerator door and stared at Kyle with a squinted suspicious look, he only nodded his head in response letting you know it was all yours alone.
Just as your hand reached for the box, you heard loud, quick footsteps coming down the stairs. "Hey, adoptee! Don't ya wanna give me a hug?" The tall red-haired girl flew into the kitchen and crossed her arms over her chest pouting her lips.
"Rachel! How did you…" You slammed the refrigerator door shut and rushed toward her. "I mean, I didn't know you were home, I'm sorry!" You hugged her wrapping your arms around her cheeks and kissing her tanned round face. She crinkled her dark green eyes every time you accidentally grazed them with your lips.
"I'll set the table for us for now," Kyle announced, looking at your tendrils.
While Kyle scoured the fridge for the food you needed, you decided to take a quick refreshing shower and put on your clean, soft pajamas after your warm reunion. As you walked down the stairs from the second floor, you smelled the delicious aroma of tuna sandwiches and as you moved closer to the table, you saw that there were three golden crusted sandwiches on your plate and a nearby basket full of fruit. As you sat down as a small family at the table Kyle began to question you. "So, are you going to tell me where you've been this time?" he asked slicing your cheesecake for you.
"In Cambodia!" you replied, without really getting through a bite of sandwich.
"What, running around scaring the local tourists?" He asked mockingly, but Kyle always does that. Kindly.
"I'd love to, but this time I had to run underground," you replied with your mouth still full. Suddenly you get a light slap."Hey!" you turned to Rach, at which point she grabbed your nose with two fingers.
"How many times have I told ya to chew your food better? " The girl asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Got it, giving up, white flag, let go!" Rachel couldn't keep her stern big sister expression and laughed because of your stuffed nose and mouth full of food.
"By the way, look what I found!" And with that, you pulled out the small sphere that had been in your backpack all this time. You squeezed the sphere a little harder than you should have, and a small but noticeable electric shock went through you. You dropped the sphere, and it fell onto the wooden table, leaving a charred mark on it.
"What the hell is that?" Kyle asked disapprovingly squinting his eyes as he methodically peeled the skin off the apple with his knife.
"Dunno," you shrugged. "I haven't found out yet."
"Uh-huh, just like the last fifty pieces of bling," Rachel grumbled to herself.
You ignored her grumbling and continued. "But I really hope this thing can provide a steady flow of energy. There is a possibility that it was an amulet of Lakshmi, the consort of the god Vishnu. She was the source of the god's power and splendor filling him with energy. According to one legend, she leaves Vishnu when she sees the violation of moral standards in the story of Bhrigu. It's said that before disappearing from the divine world, she placed a piece of her soul there," you said gazing intently into the sphere.
"Sorry, says who? Voices in your head?" Kyle looked at you with his hand resting on his chin.
"Yep, and they also tell me you'll be sleeping outside tonight," you said rolling your eyes.
It was decided to spend the rest of the evening in silence. Kyle was on his phone, working on a training for the younger kids, Rachel had decided to collapse on the couch to the evening news, the newscaster broadcasting something about the Japanese prime minister's intentions to meet with the Iranian president and the release of radioactive water from the f*ckushima nuclear power plant and you were doing the dishes humming your favorite songs to yourself.
You didn't remember whose decision it was to have panoramic windows in the hall, but now it seemed the best decision in the world. The cold night wind touched it with a gentle hand of nature and when you opened them, the hand touched you. It was good to feel alive even in spite of all those events that remained a scorched stigma on your past. Even if you weren't always up to the task, you successfully crushed the bright flashes of memories with the sole of your hardened character.
"...a tour bus traveling the Kyoto-Nara route was found in the middle of the highway near the village Ide..."
The newscaster's voice pulled you out of your thoughts. Without taking your eyes off the window, through which you could see the troubled bay glittering blue, you began to listen to the newscaster’s words.
"...completely empty, there was no sign of a struggle inside the bus or in the immediate vicinity..."
You are not surprised that no one has been able to find a trace of the missing people. The very beasts described in the Bibl, called by man as demons are particularly careful and calculating.
"...a search operation has been organized, anyone with any information should contact the nearest police station..."
A crazy grin escaped your lips and you wanted to wish the federal authorities good luck because they would have to look in a dimension other than this one. Unconsciously, your thoughts drifted to the people on the bus. The young ones, under thirty, would most likely be used for the merger. The rest would either be butchered or enslaved, perhaps even sexual. You vividly imagined a pool of blood spreading on the ground, with a kneecap, a severed arm and a couple of severed vertebrae floating in it; the wet crunch of grinding bones, accompanied by a tight exhausted whimper replayed in your brain. Suddenly your keen hearing distinguishing the fictitious from the real, detected a rustle that broke the twilight's deceptive peace. Faint unfamiliar footsteps were heard at the other end of the room. Your soul became alert, and you became alert with it. "Good evening," came a hoarse voice from the darkness of the corridor.
"Good evening, Mr. Dead Principal!" you exhaled inaudibly, smiled and waved to the man.
***
"Here, your tea," you handed the hot mug to Principal Yaga. "Why are you on your feet? Didn't doc warn you that you were too weak now?"
"Thank you," the man took a sip and continued. "He warned me, but I heard him talking to someone and told me that you had arrived," the principal paused for a moment and added. "I wanted to thank you personally."
"You shouldn't have. You seemed ready to die," you said, a note of understanding slipping into your words. "Besides, it wasn't me who saved you, it was that redhead rascal over there," your thumb pointed behind you at the snoring Rach. "I wasn't even there."
"But she was there on your orders," the director said.
"It wasn't an order," you replied taking a sip of freshly brewed coffee from your mug.
"Anyway," he said shrugging and you chuckled softly. "I never knew you felt like a battered sack of potatoes after resurrection," the headmaster tried to stretch his neck with naughty hands.
"Technically you're not resurrected, you just didn't have time to die," you frowned your eyebrows slightly.
"You mean it was some kind of clinical death?"
"You could call it that, of course," you shrugged and took a sip of coffee from your mug. "But routine terms don't really fit our way of life. The situations aren't exactly, uh, mundane."
"May I ask how you did it?"
"There is some sort of, uh, what do you call them? Tech? Nevermind. Anyway, we know it's very dangerous to play with time, but it's possible to freeze certain processes separately. Biological ones, among others. For an uninformed person it is much easier to freeze it, but those who know about it, consciously "turn off" the possibility of this manipulation with their body. After all, not everyone uses this technique for good," you tried to explain gesturing vigorously with your hands and having finished your explanation awkwardly put them around the mug. There was silence. It wasn't tense, just a silence between the person who had saved one life and the person who could save that life. Your chipped fingernails drove cracks in the table and thoughts that it would be a good idea to cut them off right now occupied your mind. You just had to focus on something to keep from feeling the pain.
"So now I shouldn't let anyone know I'm alive?" the principal interrupted the silence.
"Ya shouldn't," you said, shaking your head. "Your people have something coming up in three days and ya're too weak to help," you sighed, your index finger sliding over the rim of your cup. "I think the news that those who should be underground by now are sitting quietly drinking tea somewhere on the edge of Japan is going to bring them down. Well, maybe it might make them happy, but we're not taking any risks. On top of that, let the opposing side think you're outnumbered.
"Gojo scheduled the battle for December 24? " The headmaster asked in amazement raising his eyebrows.
"Yep, he did!" you leaned back in your chair, looked at the headmaster and laughed. "Your student has a lot of quirks."
"You have no idea how many," Yaga grinned realizing he missed his annoying former student. "Let me ask you, will you intervene?"
"We won't interfere until we realize things are going badly," you replied, your face twisted into a sly smile. "You know the politics of thugs and thieves," you said and then it was Principal Yaga's turn to laugh.
The evening was turning to night, and moths began to fly in through the open window circling the kitchen wall garland that you used instead of a nightlight. You watched the tiny wings flutter in the shimmering light thinking about how to present the information unknown to the director in a gentler way. You knew you couldn't delay this conversation, so you grabbed the mug as if it would give you some kind of support and blurted it out. "I'm sorry to report, but Master Tengen is dead," you exhaled silently, a small but heavy weight lifting from your soul.
"That's how it is," the principal said after a short pause, you could hear him swallow. "What about the Tokyo College?"
"Splinters," you scrutinized your fingers trying to avoid eye contact as if you were an accomplice.
"Is there anything else I should know?" The headmaster asked and you drained the mug in two gulps and set it down on the wooden table with a loud clatter.
"One who used to be in Itadori, uh," you hesitated trying to find the right words. "It seems he's in Megumi now."
"Sukuna Ryomen?" The director's voice exploded, but when he saw your eyes widen, he quickly calmed down. "Why would he do that?"
"Is that what you're asking me?" you raised your eyebrows pointing one hand toward yourself. "No idea. Maybe it was a change of scenery or maybe it was a plan."
You felt an unpleasant chill in your chest at your own words. You tilted your head back and stared up at the dark ceiling letting the rising tide of anxiety fill your head for a moment. Besides the fact that the demons' actions had been out of control lately, the curses were now on a full scale.
"I apologize for the interruption," Kyle's voice behind you pulled you out of your dazed state. "Y/N, devices for our kids ready yet?"
"Yeah, look in the workroom, top right desk drawer", you said.
"It's easy to find a table in this Filipino dump," Kyle said with irony in every word. You co*cked your head up and looked at Kyle.
"Good, maybe ya can clean it up!" you exclaimed, clapping your hands like a child.
"Dream on!" he lightly ruffled your hair, and headed toward the door that led to the basem*nt.
"It's very late, and you must be tired," you said, turning to Principal Jaga. "Go back to the infirmary, or I'll complain to doc about his patient walking around without his permission. He doesn't like that and won't tolerate it," you stood up, pushing your chair behind you. "You'll be out of lunch muffins for a week," and at the same time you turned around, following Kyle into the workroom.
***
As you walked past the kitchen, you glanced at the ridiculously colored refrigerator. The farther you walked across the cold floor of the house the more the warming feeling in your chest grew. You adored this place. Even though the air outside these walls was filled with callousness, at home every particle was filled with love. Even the particles that made up the damn appliances.
"We're not going to buy it," Kyle shook his head erratically from side to side. "Don't even think about it. No."
"Why? Give me one reason!" you started whimpering like a little baby.
"Let me see... Probably because it's RED and has freakin' PINK CHAMOMILE on the front of it!" You tried to keep a sad expression on your face to his words, but your lips twitching from holding back laughter gave you away. "It's f*cking fashion disaster," he mumbled, covering his face with his hand. You laughed so hard you had to clutch your hands to your stomach. *** You sat on the curb outside an appliance store in the blazing June sun, with only the wind, like a hero from the books, saving your overheated bodies."Ya know I hate you," Kyle said with his hands on his cheeks. "You and your gift for persuasion." "I know, hun. So are we gonna order movers or are we gonna do this on our own?"
When you entered the workroom the colors were familiar to your eyes. It could have seemed that there were colors here that didn't even exist in nature. They were everywhere: on the floor, on the walls and even somehow managed to reach the ceiling. Various caustic chemical stains, scuffs, fuel oil marks - looking at all this splendor you even felt ashamed. Just a little bit. Because this room used to be sterile white. Approaching Kyle from the back, you began to watch as he rummaged through your desk.
"Okay, here they are, I think," Kyle pulled something that looked like an impossibly thin black spider web out of a drawer. He folded the devices neatly into a black metal box and was about to leave the workroom. "f*cking Jesus!" He almost let go of the object. "Stop sneaking up on people like that!"
"Sorry, sorry, habit!" you grabbed the guy's forearms to keep him off balance, "Did ya find everything?"
"Yeah, think so, albeit barely. "
"Cut it out, I promise to clean this place up!" You pouted playfully for a second, but in the same instant your face took on a slightly worried expression. You had a favor to ask Kyle. "Look, I know you got along with the kids from Tokyo College, so could you help them out in three days? I mean, just be in range, just in case. Take Rach and a couple other guys with you," a feeling of unease made you look away. "It'll be safer that way."
"Even if I was against the idea, wouldn't you do it your way again and run over there to see the whole thing with your own eyes?
"Actually, that's what I wanted to do," you smiled at how well Kyle knew you. "But I can't. I have things to do in Karnak.
"Egypt? Are you f*cking kidding me?" The men's got his eyes on you. "You literally just got back, you're a mess!" you bit your lip under his angry glare. "Look, this is not a joke. You just got back, you need to recuperate. Moreover, you have a raid in a week. Are you even thinking straight?" Kyle hasn't taken his eyes off you.
"No, I hit it when I was a kid, I think," you put your hand dramatically to your forehead.
"Why do ya need to go there? I mean, why the urgency?"
"Hun, you know perfectly well why. Marragta's core is nearly depleted of energy. How do you propose we supply Hopetown with electricity? Build a nuclear power plant?" you ran your hands through your hair in concern. "Besides, if there's no electricity, the desalination units will stop working and most importantly without a steady flow of power the installed relics will stop working and the town will be left without protection!" you were doing everything you could to keep from snapping at the Kyle. "Don't we have enough problems?"
"It's not like ya have to run around the world checking every myth or legend for accuracy!" Kyle was starting to feel more frustrating. Even though his tone of voice hadn't changed, you were always good at reading between the lines even if it was for your own good. "Ya know they were rarely true."
"I do. I'm well aware of that. But I'd rather regret what I've done than do nothing," you said through clenched teeth.
"I don't understand why we can't just use dark energy? I doubt the universe would be greedy about it," Kyle rubbed the fingers of his hands together in confusion. He hated being helpless, but he hated not being able to help you even more.
"Dark energy is extremely unstable in the long run. It has to be used here and now and even that doesn't guarantee that you won't disappear with it after it's used. We've talked about this many times and we won't discuss it again," you waved your hand in his direction, signaling that the conversation was over.
Kyle had been there for you since you were a child, even though you'd never needed it. He'd been one of the first witnesses to your first steps, your first words, your first bad joke, even though he was a little older than you. All his deep tenderness for you, which had been building up in him since the day you appeared was shattered every time by your recklessness filling every shard with anxiety and every sudden disappearance of yours provoked such a quarrel even if there was no proper ground for it. After each conflict you felt Kyle's confused gaze on you and each time one of you took a step towards. "Kyle—" you exhaled, but the guy immediately interrupted you.
"I'm sorry I snapped at ya like that. Ya know I'm just really worried about you," he tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear with a careful movement of his hand.
"I know, it's your role as big brother, so get over it," you smiled and returned to your radiant state. You reached out to hug Kyle, but your phone vibrated on your screen.
"Who else at this hour? " Kyle asked, peering at your phone screen and you looked away before he could read the caller's name and answered it.
"Itadori?" You sounded surprised and worried at the same time. You heard heavy breathing, wind howling and snow rustling on the other end of the phone.
"Uh... Uh, Y/N," Yuji's voice shivering from the cold finally came through the phone. "It seems I have gotten lost in the forest near your house."
***
You wrapped Yuji's shivering body in a soft colorful blanket as he sat on the bed in your workroom. He looked from you to Kyle shaking from the cold trying to say something, but his teeth were chattering and he wrapped himself tighter in the blanket, only his brown eyes visible from beneath the soft fabric. Kyle looked at the situation, and tilted his head in your direction. "I think I'll make some cocoa and look for the old heater," he said softly and turned and headed for the door.
"If ya decide to add whiskey to it, I suggest ya start being afraid now," you jokingly warned Kyle.
"Mercy," the guy dramatically put the back of his hand to his forehead and slammed the door shut winking at you. You flopped down on the floor next to the bed waiting for him to warm up enough to say something. Looking at Yuji's blue face, you were willing to bet yourself that his skin was tingling unpleasantly right now. With that thought you got up off the floor and went to the closet to get another brightly colored blanket and wrapped the boy in it again and sat down next to him on the floor. "I wondered if you were born this crazy, or if you'd picked it up from your teacher," Itadori's eyes widened and if his skin hadn't been so blue, a blush would have shown on his cheeks. You noticed the look in his eyes and added without a trace of embarrassment: "Why are ya looking at me like that? Judging by your stories, he really got a screw loose," you kept staring at him waiting for the warmth of your room to warm him up.
"We started practicing teleportation last week," the boy mumbled to your surprise as he parted his cracked lips.
"Yeah?" you asked raising your eyebrows. "I see," you said a little stiffly, trying hard not to laugh.
"Don't laugh!" The boy fidgeted in the bed, the warm blankets began to come off him and you could see that his skin was beginning to take on a vibrant color. "I'm... I'm glad to see you, Y/N," Yuji said, and a wide smile spread across his face.
"Itadori, I'm happy to see you too and no offense, but…," you faltered biting your lip. "What are ya doing here?
"Dunno," he lowered his head slightly shrugging his shoulders. "Battle is coming soon and the closer it gets, the more nervous and sleepless I get," he looked away and scratched the back of his head. "I feel much more relaxed at your place for some reason."
"Nervous?" you asked the boy. "Didn't ya tell me that your teacher is the strongest sorcerer?"
"It's true!" the boy exclaimed waving his hands in the air. "I'm not doubting him, it's just... It's just that Sukuna is in Megumi's body now, and Teacher Gojo, well... He raised him," Yuji said, his eyes blank for a moment. You could tell from the way he was rubbing his fingers that he wanted to say something else and your guess was immediately confirmed because you heard him draw in more air. "Perhaps you have a plan to suppress the Sukuna in Megumi's body?" Yuuji blurted out and then stopped abruptly waiting for your answer.
"No, there's no plan," you shook your head slowly looking into his brown eyes. You noticed how the boy's broad shoulders began to slump slowly. "But there is an idea," you said, a smile in the tone of your voice and the boy smiled along with you.
"Really?" Itadori excitedly asked, giving in your direction.
"Yep," you said, getting up off the floor shaking off your feet. "Now go to sleep," Itadori looked at you confused and pouted his lips expecting you to say something else. "Kyle will take ya back in the morning and you can tell your friends you spent the night at the girl's," you winked at him and without waiting for him to ask more, left the workroom.
