Chapter 4

Kaia stood barefoot in a house with hardwood floors. A song played distantly in the background. It was some lullaby she'd never heard before, one with music she wasn't accustomed to, like something out of an American cowboy movie. The voice of the person singing the lullaby sounded like it belonged to a very old woman. Someone with silver hair, wrinkles, and long, arthritic fingers. Kaia tried to imagine the woman's face, but when she tried, all she could see was a blank face with no features.

She walked deeper into the house. The lights were off and it was so dark she couldn't see anything but the floor. There were windows though. She could see that much because moonlight trickled in. Beams of blue-white light illuminated parts of the house—the cold floors, the dirty windows, the bare walls with peeling paint.

The lullaby got louder the longer Kaia walked. She smelled something awful. It smelled like something sweet had been left out for too long. Smelled like rot and fruit flies had gotten to whatever it was. She walked. She pressed her hands to the walls that seemed so much closer than they were a second ago and pulled them back to feel something wet and slick on them. She walked. She reached an empty room and felt the same wet slickness on her bare feet.

There was a chair in the middle of the room.

She walked.

The lullaby played louder.

She walked.

The stench shifted from a rotted sweetness to something heavier. It shifted to something salty. Something that smelled of old meat.

She walked.

A figure sat in the chair. Tears sprung to Kaia's eyes. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to go home. It was wrong. Everything was all wrong. She wanted to see her sister. She wanted to see her mother and father. She didn't want to look at the figure. She didn't want to see what it was.

She walked.

A sob ripped free of Kaia's throat and she felt a terrible sting. A horrible, awful, unbearable sting right at the hollow of her larynx.

She walked until she stood in front of the chair and she could see the figure slumped over in it, body limp and blood staining the floors, Kaia's feet, and her hands.

She screamed.

When Kaia's eyes snapped open, she could feel tears on her cheeks, could feel her heart desperately throwing itself against her ribcage. She wiped the tears away and rubbed her hand across her face, taking deep breaths and trying to get her heart rate under control.

"You okay? You were whimpering in your sleep," Shoko asked.

She sat at a desk that was pushed against the wall beneath their large window that looked out into the forest. She had a cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other, the window cracked just enough for Kaia to feel a sharp breeze and for the smoke from the cigarette to escape their room.

"I'm okay. Just a super weird dream," Kaia mumbled. She rubbed the back of her head and yawned. "Did you exorcise my curse?"

"I did. She was creeping me out at 2am and I needed to pee," Shoko said. She shivered, seemingly at the memory, and took a drag of her cigarette.

"Ah. Probably a good idea. It's kinda hard to see her when you're coming back from the bathroom at night and you definitely don't want to bump into her."

"Does she follow you when you get up at night?"

"Yeah," Kaia said with another yawn. She swung her legs over the side of her bed and stretched. "She's gotta be able to see me. Otherwise, she rampages."

"So freaky," Shoko said, shivering again with her lip curling.

Kaia chuckled and went about her morning routine. She showered, dressed for class, and walked to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast. Then when she walked into the little classroom, expecting to see Yaga at the front, she was surprised to see a woman with black hair, full bangs, with her hair pulled low into two ponytails. Kaia thought that she looked a little too young to be teaching the class, probably only being a few years older than Shoko.

"Where's Yaga?" Kaia asked, sliding into the desk beside Nanami.

"He's busy with missions and the second years today. I'm going to assist with today's instruction. I'm Utahime Iori."

"Does this mean I'm free of detention then?" Kaia asked as she twiddled her thumbs.

Utahime rolled her eyes. "No. It does not, Murakami."

"Man. I don't want to sit in detention all by myself on a Friday night," she whined. She looked at Nanami and nudged him in the arm. "Nanami, do something stupid and get detention with me."

"Why would I do that?" he scoffed.

"Haibara. Do something stupid and get detention with me."

"Heh. No way."

"Enough," Utahime said with a glare. "Murakami, you won't be alone in detention. You'll have Satoru Gojo to keep you company."

Kaia wasn't sure she'd ever felt such awful disappointment before in her life. She groaned and smacked her hand to her forehead. Her complaints were accompanied by the distinct snickers of Haibara and Ijichi and she wanted to punch them both.

"I take it back. I'd rather be alone."

"You and me both," Utahime said. "Let's get started. Today's class is on control."

Maha sipped tea at the dining room table as she read over some of her school materials. Break would be over soon and she didn't want to spend all of next week busting her butt, unable to do anything fun because she'd have to cram. Then again, that was assuming her parents didn't ground her for the rest of eternity after they reprimanded her for what happened at the bonfire.

She still hadn't heard from them. Yaga had picked Kaia up a few days ago and told them that their parents would be returning soon. But Maha hadn't heard anything. No phone call. No postcard. Nothing. She didn't want to be worried. She was sure that they were fine, but she still was. She was terribly worried. It wasn't like them to go radio silent like that.

She wished she could call Kaia, but her little sister didn't have a cell phone and Maha didn't know how to reach the school. She figured she would never learn since she wasn't a sorcerer and jujutsu society wasn't exactly friendly to people like her. Maha never realized how much she would miss her annoying brat of a little sister until she was so far away.

Sighing, Maha flipped the page and finished the rest of her tea. She got up to get more, standing in front of the window that overlooked the courtyard. She steeped the tea and looked outside, just in time for her eyes to catch sight of what she thought was a figure lingering by one of the trees. Maha narrowed her eyes, trying to see past the rays of sunlight that were blinding her. There was definitely a person there.

Her brow furrowed. Who the hell was that? The figure of the person couldn't have been either of her parents, they were too large for that. Ren was petite like a bird, and Kaito was small like a European Formula 1 driver. The figure of the person in the courtyard was large. They had broad shoulders, were probably well over six feet, and had a hunched over posture that Ren never would have allowed.

Setting the tea down, Maha walked outside. Maybe she just couldn't see right with the sun blinding her. It was probably nothing. Or maybe it was her father bundled up in a jacket since it'd been so cold out the last few days.

"Dad?" she called out once she was outside in the crisp winter air.

The sun disappeared by a fluffy white cloud, clearing Maha's vision. Only once she outside, the figure was gone. She turned in a circle, looking in all directions at where the person might have gone, but it was to no avail. She was alone in the courtyard.

She felt something heavy in her stomach. Maybe it was from being home alone for a few days. Maybe it was her paranoia, but she couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her gut. She couldn't shake the feeling that whatever lingered in the courtyard felt a lot like cursed energy.

The morning's mission had gone smoother than any of them could have hoped for. No one even got a scratch on them. Gojo couldn't believe that it was such a highly ranked mission because not even Ieiri broke a sweat. They went out in the morning and got back right around lunchtime only to find out that they had the rest of the day off because Yaga was out on his own mission.

"Think this means I can skip detention?" Gojo asked over a plate of untouched vegetables and rice.

"Utahime is covering today for Yaga. So probably not," Ieiri said.

"Yeah? Not sure what she could teach any of the first-years since she's so weak, but—"

"I heard that, Satoru. Learn to respect your elders."

Gojo smirked at where Utahime sat beside Ieiri with a cup of tea. She looked tired, evident by the frown on her face and circles beneath her eyes. He wondered why. It wasn't like she'd been on missions recently. She'd been too busy filling in as a substitute teacher in Yaga's absence and supposedly running errands for Gakuganji in Kyoto.

"You look tired," Geto said.

"I am. The first years are maniacs," Utahime said. She rubbed her temples with her index and middle fingers and nodded behind where Gojo and Geto were seated. He knew the first years were a few tables away. He could feel their cursed energy, Nanami's and Murakami's in particular. Nanami had an overwhelming amount of cursed energy while Murakami's was just different. Both of them were hard to ignore when they were in the same room as him. His Six Eyes couldn't help but be fixated on them.

"Are they? I haven't really met them. I like Kaia though," Shoko said easily. "She's cool. You know… Aside from the whole creepy curse thing."

"Murakami damn near burnt the building down earlier," Utahime muttered. "Her cursed energy is off the charts and I don't know how to help her reign it in."

Gojo rolled his eyes. A sorcerer didn't need to reign in their cursed energy, they needed to learn how to control it and not waste it away on stupid bullshit. Surely, Utahime had to know that by now.

"She certainly has an aura to her," Geto commented.

"It's not 'off the charts' like you say it is, Iori," Gojo said. He looked over his shoulder, leaning his chin on his fist and glancing at Murakami. Her auburn hair was pulled into a loose bun at the back of her head with pieces left out to frame her face. He could see a smudge of soot beneath one of those deep green eyes and watched with a bored sense of interest as she said something that made Yu Haibara laugh and a wicked smirk slither across her face. He turned his attention back to Utahime. "Kento Nanami's cursed energy is off the charts. But Murakami? She actually has a pretty normal amount of cursed energy, it's just chaotic. You should see it though. It glows an unusual color—it's the strangest thing. I wonder if her father's cursed energy looks the same."

"You both seem oddly aware of her," Shoko said. She raised her eyebrows expectedly at him and Geto and glanced between them. "Am I missing something?"

Gojo knew why he was intrigued by the new first year. Anyone who could see cursed energy like him would be intrigued. But Shoko was right. Geto seemed interested in her as well and had been overly nice to her, though Gojo didn't know why. He was nice to her on the train, nice to her when they passed her in the hallway… He was just nice for some reason and Gojo had no idea why.

"Like I said, her cursed energy glows an odd color and I'm nosy. I don't know about Geto though," Gojo remarked, staring at his best friend. Maybe Geto would enlighten them all because it was mildly driving Gojo insane to see his friend acting so out of character.

Geto didn't look bothered. He just shrugged.

"I think she's nice."

"Huh? You think she's nice?" Gojo repeated, wondering what the hell that meant. He narrowed his eyes and leaned closer to his friend, inspecting his face for any signs of a lie.

"Mhm. She's pretty too."

"Yeah right," Utahime said. She glared at both of them. "You two idiots perceive kindness as weakness. Geto is probably interested in her because she has a cursed spirit following her around."

Geto didn't even look embarrassed. He just smirked.

"And? What's your point, Iori?" he asked. "It's an unusual phenomenon. All of you should be interested in it."

Shoko laughed as Utahime's precise point was made. Iori then worked on berating them after that, saying that they were callous and that neither of them actually cared if someone was nice or pretty or not. Saying that neither of them cared about anyone other than themselves. They only cared about power. But as she went on, Satoru tuned her out. She wasn't wrong and he didn't care. He wouldn't apologize for valuing strength above all else. At least, he wouldn't for as long as he was part of jujutsu society—a society where the only thing that kept him alive was his strength and power.

Satoru's mind shifted as Iori continued to make a scene. So Geto thought Murakami had potential too. Maybe that's why he was being so nice to her. He saw a potential for power in her and Satoru couldn't really blame him for that. He himself saw potential. But still. Couldn't his friend see her glaring weaknesses? Gojo seriously doubted that any of the first years, aside from Nanami, would ever make it to Grade 1. They were all just so weak and lacked a basic fundamental understanding of jujutsu sorcery. Murakami couldn't even use one of her techniques and she couldn't even control the other given that she almost set the building on fire. It was ridiculous.

Still though. If Murakami had enough potential for Geto to be intrigued, it did make him wonder… Maybe she wouldn't turn out to be such a disappointment after all?

Though he doubted it.

Kaia arrived for detention two minutes before 4pm to see that Gojo was in fact, not present like she'd been told. Instead of Gojo, one of Yaga's cursed corpses was seated on the desk at the front of the room where he would often give lessons. It was a pale pink bear slash rabbit thing? Kaia wasn't really sure, but it had the body of a bear and the floppy ears of a rabbit. As Kaia was learning was custom, the little dude had bright red boxing gloves on its paws? Hands? Whatever. The point was that clearly, the little guy would be ready to clock her if she tried to leave before the hour was up.

Its eyes followed her as she took a seat at a nearby desk. Once she sat down and the clock struck 4pm, the corpse jumped off the front desk and hopped over to where she sat. It handed her an index card with Yaga's handwriting on it that gave her the rundown on detention. She'd be required to write a paper within the hour explaining the importance of control and why mastering it is a must for all jujutsu sorcerers. There was no mention of what the corpse was there for, but Kaia already had some ideas and she didn't want to test them. So she took a notebook out and got to work on her essay while the little bear/rabbit dude hopped back over to the front desk.

It patrolled the desk, pacing back and forth and making little noises. It was a dutiful corpse that would occasionally punch its gloves together and glance at the clock. Kaia was thankful that it was just the cursed corpse keeping her company and not Gojo. That would have made the detention astronomically worse. Though she did wonder where the arrogant second year was because as far as she knew, there was only one detention room. So then—

Nevermind.

Satoru Gojo stumbled into the room at 4:12pm, followed by another cursed corpse, this one was a blue bear with boxing gloves. It was punching Gojo left and right, making cranky little noises and strutting around until Gojo fell into the desk adjacent to Kaia's with his sunglasses half fallen off his face from the assault.

She glanced at him out of her peripheral vision and almost gasped when she got a quick look at those irises, no longer completely hidden behind jet black lenses.

They were so blue. Not just pretty "ocean blue eyes" or "icy eyes" but something completely and totally different. She knew her lips were parted in shock and that she was staring, but she couldn't help it. They were unreal. His eyes weren't just blue, but they flickered with all sorts of different colors and dimensions. They were sky bright, clear, all-knowing. They were. They were…

They were the Six Eyes.

Gojo grinned at her and adjusted his sunglasses so the black lenses once again hid those irises and waved.

"Didn't mean to scare ya. The corpses get a little rowdy if you're late."

So he didn't notice her gawking. He just thought she was gaping at the corpse that had been kicking his ass. Or maybe he did notice and was saving her dignity, though Kaia thought that was highly unlikely.

What a relief. She couldn't believe she'd been such a dumbass staring at him like that. Who was she? Maha? A dewy-eyed schoolgirl?

"Of course, you'd be late," she said. She turned back to her paper, doing her best to ignore the white-haired boy beside her.

"I got held up."

"With what? Playing games with Geto?" she retorted.

The bear/rabbit corpse walked over to Gojo and handed him an index card just as it'd done to Kaia. Only where with Kaia, it left her alone, the corpse threw a punch that landed right on Gojo's cheek, knocking him out of the desk. The corpse whooped with the blue bear before it returned to the desk to resume its patrol.

Kaia couldn't stop the giggles that erupted from her throat. She tried to hide them by feigning a cough into her hand, but when she glanced at where Gojo was tangled up in the desk from falling over and pressing his hand to his (already bruised) cheek, she couldn't help but start giggling all over again.

"Is my pain funny to you, Murakami? Are you secretly a masochist?" Gojo quipped as he pulled himself up from the floor.

"I believe the term you're looking for is sadist," she corrected. She looked back at her paper and drew a swirl in the margin.

"You're too young to know what all those dirty words mean," he said.

"And you're not?" she asked, knowing full too well that she was rising to the bait when she looked away from her paper at him again. She would never admit it out loud, but she found that she wished his irises weren't hidden behind those glasses.

"I'm seventeen," he said, smirking as always. "I've been with more girls than Yaga probably has."

She scoffed, "you're disgusting."

"I'm also good in bed."

Without thinking better of it, she threw her pen at Gojo's head. It landed, striking his temple, just where one of those white locks fell and he squeaked a little ouch when her blow connected. Though her victory was short-lived because she quickly realized that that had been her only pen. And judging by the quick look she risked at the cursed corpses, they were probably programmed to kick both of their asses if they weren't writing for more than a minute or so because the blue one was looking at her and smacking its gloves together and bouncing on its feet.

"Can I have my pen back?" she asked.

"After you assault me with it? No chance, Murakami."

"Come on! Please? I don't want to get punched by those little creeps!" she whined, bracing herself for the moment the blue one started to bounce over to her.

Gojo looked at her, leaning back in his chair and resting his chin on his hand with that dumb grin on his pretty face. He looked like the insolent, egotistical brat that she knew he was, but she was at his mercy because she knew that Yaga's cursed corpses could pack one hell of a punch and she did not want to experience what that was like for herself.

"I will if you say something nice about me."

She scowled as hard as she possibly could while he just beamed. God, what a narcissistic jackass.

She didn't waste any more thought on it though because the blue bear started to head in her direction, smacking its little gloves together and gurgling out little sounds that might have been cute if they hadn't been directed at her.

"Your eyes are pretty," she said quickly, tearing her gaze between Gojo and the cursed corpse that was quickly closing in on her.

"Why, Murakami! How thoughtful of you! That is so—"

"Gojo!"

He snickered and tossed the pen to her desk just as the blue bear swung its arm back to punish Kaia for not taking her detention seriously. She jotted a quick word on the notebook paper and the corpse stopped. It started to walk away and she let out a sigh of relief, but before it got too far, it swung a punch that connected with Gojo's stomach and he yelped, doubling over in his seat as the bear jumped up and down, doing a little victory dance.

Kaia burst out laughing for a second time that day.

Unlike Gojo, Kaia got to leave detention right at 5pm since she had been on time. Instead of grabbing dinner with Nanami or Shoko, she opted for going on a run. She'd been bad with her workout routine since getting to the school and there was no way she'd let years of brutal training with her mother go to waste. She worked hard for her body and she intended to keep it in peak physical condition.

Which meant going on a five-mile run on a Friday night instead of hanging out with friends.

She hadn't really planned her route out. Instead, she relied on one of those running watches her father gifted her with a few years ago to tell her what her mileage was. She figured it wouldn't take too long, less than 45-minutes. It was really just to get her muscles warmed up and make sure her endurance didn't go to crap. With a cursed technique that relied so heavily on her lungs, that was one thing Kaia could not afford to lose. Poor endurance, poor cardio, and poor VO2 max made her a weak sorcerer and she couldn't have that. Not when her life quite literally depended on it.

Kaia ran perimeters around the school. Her pace had been slow and steady, just enough to keep her heart rate up, and she had logged about three miles when she spotted someone jogging ahead of her. She was still on school grounds, so it had to be another student. Kaia sped up her pace a little to see who it was, and when she was only a few strides away from the person, they turned over their shoulder and smiled at her.

It was Geto.

His long hair was pulled back into a bun as it always was with one piece carefully left hanging out by his face. He wore a pair of sweatpants, tennis shoes, and a fitted white t-shirt. His stride was longer than Kaia's, but his pace was slower, so she found herself shoulder to shoulder with him in almost no time at all.

"This seems like a boring way to spend your first Friday night at the school. I thought Ieiri was having a party?" he said when she reached him.

Kaia slowed her pace down just a bit to match him so they were able to keep a conversation going. She didn't mind Geto. He wasn't a constant jackass to her like Gojo was and would at least be somewhat kind to her.

"I thought she was just having a few friends over?" Kaia asked between pants.

"That's Ieiri speak for hanging out with Mei Mei and Utahime. It'll end up being a party with anyone they can find," Geto explained. "She already invited me and Gojo."

"Invited where? Our dorm is small and all the other girls' dorms are flooded," Kaia said. She struggled at a slower pace and could feel her body practically begging her to go faster, but she found that she enjoyed Geto's company. He was much easier to talk to without Gojo lurking around somewhere and she would be lying if she said she wasn't a bit lonely.

"There's a few places on campus," Geto said. He panted, clearly trying to pick up his speed a bit. "You never answered my question about why you're out here."

"I've been bad with my workout routine. At the very least I need to keep my endurance high, so I went for a run after detention," she said. They passed by a fountain near the sparring grounds of the school and began a climb up a steep hill to the top of the school grounds.

"Right… Your cursed fire," Geto said, still panting. "Makes sense."

"Want me to slow down?"

"No…" He said, taking a few moments to catch his breath as the climb increased. "How the hell are you going so fast?"

She laughed and slowed down just a bit more.

"I've got crazy impressive VO2 max. Kinda need that to consistently breathe fire, y'know?"

Geto nodded and after a few more moments of running side by side, he slowed down to a walk and planted both of his hands on his knees, and waved her on, chest rapidly rising and falling in succession.

"You go ahead," he called out when she paused to jog in place and wait for him. "I'll keel over if I try to keep up with you any longer."

She laughed and waved back. "See you tonight!"

"See you," he said, still breathless.

Kaia pushed ahead and passed Geto two more times before she finished with her run for the night, smiling to herself on and off the whole time.

Mei Mei sprawled out on the couch in the common room of Jujutsu High, typing away on her cell phone while she waited for Shoko to join her and Utahime. Utahime sat at a nearby desk, finishing up grading some papers while they waited. It was supposed to be a relaxed night. Just a girls' night to eat some good food and watch dumb movies—at least it was until Mei Mei told Shoko to invite Gojo and Geto.

What could she say? She liked some eye candy at these get-togethers.

"Where the hell is Sho?" Mei Mei asked when her patience started to run thin.

"I think she's waiting for her roommate, Kaia. She had detention earlier," Utahime said. "Did you know that she has the Murakami's cursed moon technique?"

"I've heard rumors," Mei Mei said. She set her phone down and looked over the back of the couch at her friend. "I went on a mission with Kaito maybe a year ago and he had been rather dodgy about it when I asked. My guess is she can't use it properly and that's why the family is so hush-hush about it."

"They've supposedly been hush-hush ever since leaving Okinawa," Utahime said.

"They have. I heard that Gakuganji threw quite the fit over them leaving."

"Would you two shut up? It's rude to talk about someone like they can't hear you," came Shoko's voice.

Mei Mei sat up straight with a big smile on her lips. Shoko entered the common room, wearing a cute pair of gray sweatpants a fitted long-sleeved t-shirt. A girl stood behind her with pretty brown hair that had a red tint to it and dark green eyes. Her hair was messily thrown into a ponytail and she wore a pair of jeans with a hoodie, eyes bright and homing in on where Mei Mei sat.

"Hate to break it to you, but there's no secret as to why we left Okinawa. My dad just wanted to move off the island and raise a family in a new location. Probably just wanted to be closer to jujutsu society. That's all."

She held back her smirk. Mei Mei believed that Kaia Murakami believed that, but she also didn't buy it. A traditional family like the Murakami wouldn't just up and move out of the home they lived in for 1,000 years for a change of scenery. No way.

Which meant there was a deeper secret to be discovered somewhere.

"Fair enough. I'm Mei Mei. You must be Kaia."

Kaia's pretty green eyes were suspicious, but she nodded in acknowledgment anyway, lingering close to Shoko.

"Sorry, Kaia," Utahime said. "It was a big deal in the jujutsu community is all."

"So I've heard," Kaia said, voice still icy.

"Time to party!" a new voice shouted.

Mei Mei grinned when Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto joined them in the common room. As always, the boys looked great. Gojo's casual clothes fit him well and showed off his well-toned arms and legs, while Geto's casual clothes brought attention to his broad shoulders. It was always such a fun night when the two of them tagged along.

"Boys," Mei Mei drawled.

"Kaia! I didn't know you'd be coming," Gojo said, patting Kaia on the back with a shit-eating grin on his face. Kaia's lip curled at his touch and gave him a side eye. Mei Mei watched in amusement as the little interaction went on. It wasn't every day that a girl turned down Satoru Gojo. Usually, it was just Utahime giving him a hard time after he called her weak or grated on her nerves for too long.

"Geto, get your boy away from me," she said with a frown.

"Satoru, leave her alone," Geto tried.

"Since when are you two friends?"

"Enough!" Shoko shouted in exasperation. "Are we drinking or what? The longer I have to listen to you guys sober is the longer I question my sanity."

"Say no more, Sho," Mei Mei said. She stood up and swung her bag over her shoulder. She turned around and nodded at Utahime, encouraging her friend to follow her lead.

"God, what have I gotten myself into," Kaia whined.

"Don't worry, Hon," Mei Mei said. She walked over to where the rest of them stood and mussed Kaia's hair. "I'll keep the boys all to myself tonight."

*Author's Note*

Lol sorry. I hate this chapter but I needed it to move things along.

Thank you to anyone who has followed/favorited/review this fic(: as always, drop any and all feedback with a review!