Chapter 6

Maha clutched the dagger in her right hand and her cell phone in her left as she sprinted down the path away from their house and onto the residential street. Tears burned her eyes and as soon as she was across the street and under a streetlight, she held her pink cell phone up to her face with horrifically trembling hands and dialed the emergency contact her parents always left her and Kaia when they went on missions.

She couldn't stop reliving the image of Kaia making it to the doorway of the house only to be wrenched back into their home by the back of her hair by an unknown force. A sob escaped her throat as she held the phone to her ear, pacing beneath the streetlight and whipping around over her shoulder and brandishing the dagger every time she thought she heard anything approach her.

The air was icy cold against her bare arms, as she was wearing only a t-shirt, a pair of socks, and a thin pair of pajama pants. She couldn't feel it though. Her heart was pounding too hard and the adrenaline coursing through her veins was liable to give her a heart attack.

"Come on. Come on! Answer!" she screamed into the night when the phone rang three, four, five times.

She was just about to hang up and call the police (even though she knew they would be useless in this situation) when a deep voice finally picked up.

"This is Yaga," the voice said.

Maha started to cry tears of joy and broke into hysterics.

"Yaga! I-it's me! It's Maha Murakami—I'm so sorry but my parents left me this number a-and I need someone here! There—there was—there is a curse and—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa slow down," Yaga said firmly enough that Maha forced herself to stop, but still continued to pace and choke on little sobs. "What's going on, Maha?"

She sniffled and did her best to talk through the panic, "there is a curse in my house and it has Kaia! Please! You've got to send somebody! There has to be a sorcerer in town, right?"

"Kaia? What is your sister doing all the way out there?"

"Yaga, please!" she yelled so loudly that she was sure her neighbors could hear. "My little sister is going to die!"

"Maha, you need to get yourself someplace safe right now. I can get someone out there but it might take a little bit," Yaga told her. His voice reminded her of her father's and she had the childish desire to run to her parents, yearning for their comforting presence.

"WHAT ABOUT MY SISTER?" Maha demanded, wiping her nose with the back of her hand as another sob ripped free of her throat.

There was a pause from Yaga and that only made Maha's panic worse. She sobbed even harder until she felt that her throat might start bleeding from the effort.

"Your sister is a jujutsu sorcerer. The curse may be stronger than her, but I have full faith that she can fend for herself for a little while longer. I'm sending someone out there right now but you need to get to safety immediately. Understood?"

Maha cried harder and looked at the path that led up to her house. It was so dark and ominous and downright evil that she doubted anyone could survive in there for long.

"Maha," Yaga said again when she only continued to cry. "Tonight is a full moon. Yes?"

She gasped out another set of sobs and rubbed her running nose once again, taking a second to blink away the tears that obstructed her vision long enough so she could glance up at the dark night sky.

The moon hung high above her head, casting a pretty white glow out from around it while accompanied by a sea of stars.

"Yes?" she answered, her voice so incredibly hoarse.

"Good. Kaia's cursed moon technique might be enough to buy her some time then. Someone will come."

Maha sniffled and hiccupped on her own weeps as she attempted to calm herself down long enough to go and take shelter with a neighbor.

"Okay," she whimpered.

Gojo and the rest of the group were only halfway into the second Scream movie when Yaga, quite literally, burst into the school's hidden room. Gojo, not being one to drink since his limitless technique didn't exactly love it when he poisoned himself with alcohol, was probably the only one of his friends still sober when it happened. Ieiri and Iori were leaning against each other in half-awake drunken stupors on one end of the couch. Mei Mei reclined on her back in the available couch space, her legs dangling over the arm of the couch. Meanwhile, Gojo and Geto were left to lounge out on the floor. Though this wasn't their first time doing this, so they both knew to have Mei Mei bring pillows and blankets so their backs wouldn't kill them the next day.

But his sober state as he reclined out on the floor next to Geto did nothing to help the nervousness he felt when his eyes connected with Yaga's.

They were so screwed.

"Satoru," Yaga said right away.

Ah fuck. Why did Yaga always have to start with him? He was the only one who wasn't drunk as shit. Why couldn't he start with Ieiri for the underaged drinking? Or with Mei Mei for providing the alcohol?

"Um. Yes, Sir?" Gojo asked with a nervous smile.

"How far can you teleport?"

Gojo blinked and cocked his head to the side. He glanced at Geto, and even though his friend was clearly buzzed, he wasn't drunk enough to not follow along. Geto's brow furrowed and he risked a look at Yaga, but Yaga didn't look back at him.

"Pretty far," Gojo said as he shrugged. "Why?"

"Could you teleport to the Murakami house?"

"In Okinawa?" Gojo blurted in disbelief. Damn. He was strong and he could teleport pretty damn far, but that probably would have been pushing it a bit.

"No!" Yaga snapped, curling his hand into a fist. "Kaito and Ren's house. Where we were when we picked up Kaia."

Gojo again looked at Geto, but his friend seemed just as confused.

"Sure, if you needed me to. But why?"

"There's been a situation and I need a powerful sorcerer there and I need them there now. Kaia's life may very well be at stake and I cannot get out there fast enough. She'll be dead by the time any train arrives."

"Kaia's back home? When the hell did that happen? She said she was going to take a nap a few hours ago," Ieiri announced, sitting straight up on the couch and turning around to face Yaga. For a girl who had drunk as much as she had, she was somehow able to get all of her words out without slurring.

"I don't know," Yaga said through his teeth. "Satoru, I need you to go and I need you to go right now. Have you been drinking?"

Gojo pushed himself up from the hard wooden floor and stretched his long arms above his head until his back gave a satisfying crack. He then made a point to roll out his neck and shoot his teacher a grin.

"No, Sir. Not a drop in me."

He supposed it didn't matter if Yaga believed him. Judging by the remarkably hard look on his mentor's face, keeping in mind that Yaga's expression was already hard enough, he didn't care if Gojo was drunk or not. What he cared about was the fact that Gojo could get to the Murakami house and serve as backup immediately.

"See you all in ten minutes," he said with a cheeky grin and throwing a wink to his friends. He clapped his hands together and interlaced his fingers, not bothering to get a debrief from Yaga as he teleported himself well over an hour away.

Kaia didn't know if she was awake or asleep with the heaviness in her body and the loftiness in her head. She thought she could feel herself walking, but when she tried to really pay attention to the sensations, such as the floor beneath her feet or the sounds of the house creaking around her, she realized she couldn't conclusively sense anything at all.

The only thing she could feel and understand were the sounds of that lullaby and the old woman's voice.

Go to sleep, you little babe. Go to sleep, you little babe. Everybody's gone in the cotton and the corn. Didn't leave nobody but the baby.

Who was that woman? Why was she following Kaia?

Go to sleep, you little babe. Go to sleep, you little babe. Honey in the rock and the sugar don't stop. Gonna bring a bottle to the baby.

Consciousness slipped through Kaia's fingers.

Gojo stood outside the Murakami household. He was on the steps that led to the front door, and although the door was wide open, the only thing he could see inside the home was a thick blanket of darkness. The cursed energy that emanated from the home wasn't particularly overwhelming, which was why he was so confused. Kaia should have been able to handle this curse on her own.

He plunged his hands into his pockets and walked inside, letting his Six Eyes show him what needed to be seen since the house was so dark. It was cold in there, colder than what should have been possible even with the front door wide open. Gojo walked through the kitchen and into the living room, feeling pulses of cursed energy.

He entered the living room and sat down on the sofa, scoping out the area. More specifically, he was trying to feel Kaia's cursed energy and locate her that way. It should have been easy to find her. He truly believed that he would have been able to locate her cursed energy in a crowd of a million people.

So why couldn't he feel it now?

"I'm bored. Why don't you hurry up and come out?" Gojo said with a sigh. No response. The cursed energy simply lingered in the air.

Then there was a sudden pulse of a new, but recognizable, cursed energy.

Kaia.

He stood up and followed her energy. It led him down a narrow hallway that was a little too small for comfort, making him feel a bit claustrophobic, and guided him to a room with a white door. Her cursed energy sparked from behind it and so did the cursed spirit's energy. He laid a hand on the door and was surprised to feel how warm it was.

Had it not been for his Six Eyes, Gojo was sure he would have been completely blinded by what was on the other side. It was almost as if there was a veil surrounding the room and the room alone, but it wasn't quite a veil or a curtain. But rather a blanket of darkness.

But Gojo could see right through it.

Kaia was unconscious on her bed and the curse hovered over it. It was a ghostly figure, long and tall, bony, and sharp at the edges. He couldn't see its face because it was covered with a shroud—not like it mattered though. He would exorcise it all the same.

What Gojo didn't understand was what the hell the curse was doing. It wasn't attacking her. It wasn't torturing her. It was just… Hovering there.

"I think we're done here," he muttered. He let his glasses slide down the bridge of his nose so his uncovered eyes could see the curse. The curse looked at him and started to advance his way but he activated his cursed technique, twisting the limbs of the curse until they shattered and splintered and until the curse screeched as it evaporated in a cloud of black smoke.

With the curse exorcised, the strange inky darkness was lifted from the house. And even though it was dark, Gojo could at least somewhat see his surroundings without having to rely so heavily on his Six Eyes. He pushed his glasses back up his nose, feeling fatigue tug at him from the long-distance teleportation and use of his technique. Gojo then looked at Kaia, intending on waking her up, but her eyes snapped open and they glowed an unnatural whitish purple that illuminated the room.

"Ah shit," he muttered, watching the way a similarly glowing full circle appeared in the center of her forehead. "Seriously? You couldn't have activated that when the curse was trying to do whatever the hell it was trying to do to you?"

She lunged at him and he sidestepped, but her damn technique gave her future-sight and she must have anticipated that because she was able to angle a punch that connected with his diaphragm in the same movement.

He grunted, reinforcing his body with cursed energy to absorb the overpowered punch. This wasn't good. He was sure that he could take her, even with the cursed moon technique, but he didn't want to risk damaging her family's home so much, and to be honest, he didn't have a ton of stamina left over to properly fight her. Gojo also was sure that he wouldn't be able to pull Kaia out of the technique. It seemed like the only people who could do that were people close to her, like her sister or father. And Gojo knew damn well that there was no love lost between the two of them.

Which left him with one other option that he wasn't keen on using. Both because of his stamina and because of what it might do to Kaia.

But she swung again and this time the blow connected with his forehead and he crashed into her closet, breaking the doors and falling into a pile of clothes. He huffed and rubbed his forehead, leaning forward as Kaia started to close the gap between them. Even if her future-sight could tell her what he was about to do, there was nothing she could do to dodge it.

"Sorry, Murakami," he said, standing up and crossing his middle finger over his index finger. "Domain Expansion: Infinite Void."

He was careful to only leave it active for 1-2 seconds. The domain wasn't even complete yet, so it wasn't like he could leave it active for very long anyway. Infinity rushed around them. Filling them with a knowledge of everything in the universe all at once. Bombarding them with endless information that was just incomplete enough to drive a person mad until Kaia was so stunned that she couldn't even move.

He felt a twinge of guilt. He may not have been friends with the first-year, but he took no pleasure in harming her like this. He just needed to activate it long enough to jolt Kaia out of her cursed moon technique and back into reality. He let his domain fall away in less than two seconds and when her home came back into focus, Gojo was relieved to see Kaia back to normal, though curled up on the floor and holding her head as she whimpered.

"Sorry," Gojo said, walking away from the closet and crouching down beside her. "I didn't know how else to bring you back."

"I'm gonna throw up," she whined, curling in tighter on herself until she was completely in the fetal position. Her pretty auburn hair was a mess over her face and around her head, and her body twitched every half second.

He gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. He'd been experiencing the vast infinity for his entire life. He'd been harnessing his technique from the time he was three, and he still could remember how jarring it'd been the first time he really tried using his powers. Maybe he should have used his domain for a shorter amount of time, but Gojo wasn't sure if that would have done it. He didn't know if using the domain for anything less than a full second would have brought her out of her cursed moon technique. Besides, she was a sorcerer and destined to be a strong one at that if her family's lineage meant anything. He was sure she would recover in a few hours.

"I'll get you some water," he said.

He reentered the narrow hallway and was pleased to see the lights on. He sighed, more from how tired he felt than how relieved he was, and took sluggish steps into the kitchen. When he entered the room, he leaned against the granite countertops and closed his eyes. God, he was tired. He needed to figure out how to expend less of his cursed energy when using basic techniques like teleporting. He'd never survive long in the jujutsu world until he learned how to conserve his energy.

Maybe he could find a way to repurpose it? Maybe he could find a way to ensure he would never run out.

He rolled his neck out and pushed himself away from the counter to grab a glass from one of the cabinets and fill it with water from the tap. As he did, he looked at the covered window that would have given him a view of their courtyard. He pushed the curtains back to look outside and as he did, his eyes landed on a torn seal that was pressed against the side of the window.

It was a simple white seal with black ink on it, and it was positioned in such a way that you would never see it unless you were looking for it. It was directly on the side of the window and hidden by the curtains. It wouldn't have mattered if the curtains were opened or closed. They still would have hidden the seal.

And yet, Gojo found it torn in half.

What the hell?

It wasn't uncommon for jujutsu sorcerers to reinforce the entrances into their homes with seals and protective wards. What was uncommon was finding a seal torn in half.

The water in the glass started to overflow and Gojo pulled it back, looking away from the ripped seal. He made a mental note to talk to Kaia about that in the morning. It would certainly explain how a curse got into her family's home when it should have been protected from anything with malintent.

He walked back to Kaia's bedroom and found her still curled up in a ball, but at least her body was no longer twitching. He sat down on the purple carpeted floor beside her and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Drink some water. You'll feel better," he tried.

Kaia muttered something, probably an argument or an insult telling him to fuck off, but he couldn't hear her. He set the glass right beside her and fished his cell phone out of his pocket as his eyes started to get heavier and heavier. He dialed Yaga's number by heart and held the phone to his ear, closing his eyes as he did.

"Satoru? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine," he answered. He rubbed his eyes and let his head drop between his shoulders.

"You don't sound fine," Yaga said right away.

"'M just tired," he admitted rather weakly.

"Do you have enough energy to teleport back here? Or will you be taking the train tomorrow?"

He glanced at where Kaia was still curled up in a ball, hands holding her head and eyes tightly screwed shut, water untouched. He rubbed his temple and closed his eyes again.

"We'll be on the train tomorrow."

"Okay. I'm going to call her sister and let her know that…" Gojo tuned out the rest of his mentor's words. Another glimpse at Kaia told him that she was absolutely not in the right state of mind to see her sister. She couldn't even sit up long enough to take a drink of water, let alone have her sister fuss over her. He'd seen them together after the bonfire, watched the way Maha squeezed her sister in a tight embrace the next morning. No way in hell that would go over well as Kaia was still trying to recovery from his domain.

"You can tell her that Kaia's fine, but she shouldn't come back yet. Kaia uh. Well, she needs some time to recover."

Yaga paused so long that Gojo wasn't sure if he hung up.

"…I see. I expect to see you both tomorrow. And Satoru?"

"Yes?"

"Don't think I've forgotten about your little party with Mei Mei and the rest of your classmates."

The line went dead. Gojo chuckled to himself, feeling the heaviness that was the exhaustion creeping through his limbs. He didn't even fight against his body that switched into autopilot and forced him to lie down on the carpeted floor so that he was face to face with Kaia.

"When…" Kaia muttered through clenched teeth. "Does it stop?"

He didn't bother opening his eyes. He simply reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder for some type of comfort. Not because he was feeling nice or anything, but because he couldn't deny the guilt that formed in his gut. It was his fault that she was in the state she was in.

"I'm sorry," he said under his breath. "It'll get easier in a few hours. Try to sleep."

"I can't," she whimpered. He could feel her body twitching again from where his hand was on her shoulder. Damnit. He should have used his domain for a shorter period of time. Hell. Maybe he shouldn't have used it at all. Yaga was going to kill him if Kaia didn't snap out of it by morning.

He just needed her to get to sleep. If she could sleep, he was sure that she wouldn't be damn near catatonic the next day.

"Here. Let me help," Gojo said gently. He propped himself up on his elbow, moved the glass of water so neither of them knocked it over while they slept, and focused on where Kaia was a shivering mess on the floor. Directing a tiny amount of cursed energy in his fingertips, he reached forward and touched her forehead with his index and middle fingers, effectively knocking her out.

He watched her carefully for a few more moments, making sure that she didn't jolt awake or start violently trembling or anything like that. Her chest rose and fell in a calm, even manner and the tension in her face smoothed out so she was no longer grimacing and gritting her teeth. He let himself lie back down after that, not even bothering to crash on the couch. His energy was far too depleted to walk so far. Instead, he passed out on the floor directly beside her, not even realizing that his hand brushed against hers.

Maha hardly slept through the whole night. She'd calmed herself down as much as she possibly could, and had gone to a neighbor's house after her phone call with Yaga. She'd given them a half-assed excuse when she got there, made up a story about how there'd been a break-in and that she ran away before they could get her. Said she had already called and the cops and they told her to get to safety and that someone would be out "eventually." She sat out on their couch all night, clutching onto her phone until after a half-hour, it lit up and Yaga called her.

'Your sister is fine and she's with Satoru, but I think it would be for the best if you remained where you were for the rest of the night. She's a little weak and needs to sleep.'

It took every ounce of self-control she had not to run across the street and fling the door of her house wide open to see her sister with her own two eyes, but Maha had learned over the years to listen to a sorcerer when they gave instructions. Even if they had a knack for lying to normal people about the circumstances of a situation, they were generally dead-on when it came to their instructions for keeping civilians safe. So Maha stayed at the neighbor's house.

And then first thing in the morning, there was a knock on the door.

"Maha, your parents are here," her neighbor, a kind middle aged woman, said with a smile on her still half-asleep face.

Maha jumped off the couch as her parents walked into the living room. They looked a little worse for wear. Her mother's black hair hung in messy waves over her shoulders and her green eyes were alert and bloodshot with exhaustion as she looked at Maha. She wore all black, but her black sweater was unbuttoned and it revealed a sweat-stained white undershirt. Meanwhile, her father's reddish-brown hair was slicked back with what Maha figured was sweat and grease, and there was a purple bruise blooming beneath his right eye. There was a tear in his pant leg and a splatter of what Maha thought was blood on his collar, but the black fabric made it easy to brush off so her neighbor didn't question it.

Or maybe there was a cursed technique at play that made her neighbor act like nothing was off in her parents' appearances.

"Glad to see you, Sweetheart," her father said, a smile cracking the angry façade that had been present a moment ago.

Maha threw herself into him, wrapping her arms around his torso and squeezing as hard as she could, burying her face in his sweater to hide her tears. She'd never been so relieved to see her parents before. After over a weak of radio silence, she would gladly accept any reprimands they had for her.

"Thank you for letting her stay here for the night. We've got some paperwork to do down at the station, so we need to be leaving now," her mother said, voice a little tight. Their neighbor said she was happy to help and she hoped the police caught the bastards who broke in, and then just like that, Maha's parents were guiding her across the street and back to their home.

The walk was silent and she could feel her mother's displeasure rolling off her body, so she elected to keep her mouth shut. Though it would appear that her father didn't feel the same because he looked over his shoulder at her and offered a kind smile.

"I'm so happy that you're all right," he said. "You must have been terrified."

She nodded, still refusing to talk for fear of what her mother would say.

The front door was wide open when they reached the top of the outside steps. She felt no more cursed energy, but her father still entered the house first with a dagger drawn just in case. Maha waited outside with her mother for a moment or two before her father called them inside.

She didn't know what she'd been expecting. Maybe broken furniture, claw marks in the walls, or something else. Instead, she got none of that. The house looked completely untouched. The TV was still on, playing the title screen for the romantic comedy she and Kaia had started to watch, and the window curtains were all still drawn, except for the one in the kitchen that was above the sink. Everything looked remarkably normal.

At least it did until she followed her parents down the hall and into Kaia's room.

Kaia's room was not untouched. Her dresser was broken and splintered, her closet doors were hanging off the hinges like someone had been blasted through them, and her nightstand was flipped on its side. But that wasn't what first caught Maha's attention. It wasn't the state of her little sister's room that she was staring at, it was who was in the bedroom.

Curled up in a ball on the purple carpeted floor was Kaia. Her auburn hair was a cascading mess of locks across her face and around her head. Her knees were pulled to her chest and dark bruises were forming along her arms and throat. But even though she looked injured, Maha could see her chest rise and fall as she peacefully slept.

And then there was a boy beside her. The same beautiful boy with white hair and black sunglasses from the bonfire. He'd been asleep too, directly across from her with his hand brushing against hers. He hadn't been curled up in a ball though. Instead, he was comfortably on his side, long limbs spread out so that his feet were almost in the doorway.

"Hey! Get the hell up!" her father snapped in an uncharacteristically angry tone, all while none too gracefully nudging the boy's leg with his foot. Maha glanced at her father and saw his face almost turning red. It wasn't until the boy started to wake up and until her mother laid a hand on her father's arm did he stop aggressively trying to wake the boy.

"Stop it. Don't you know who that is? That is Satoru Gojo," her mother hissed as a warning.

"That's me," he said with a voice still thick with sleep. He yawned and adjusted the circular black sunglasses on his face and grinned at where Maha and her parents crowded the doorway. "What time is it?"

"Seven-thirty in the morning," Maha said before her father could start yelling at him. "What's wrong with Kaia?"

He cocked his head to the side and craned his neck at where Kaia was asleep beside him. He shrugged and pushed himself up from the floor.

"She's all right. Just needs to recover."

"What the hell did you do to my daughter you little punk?" her father demanded. His face was turning red again and Maha shrunk in on herself. She much preferred it when her mother was the angry one.

"Kaito," her mother scolded.

Gojo didn't look at all bothered. If anything, he just looked at them with a blank expression on his handsome face as if he was bored.

"I saved her life, Mr. Murakami. She's fine. Just recovering from the shock."

Her father didn't waste any more time or patience. Instead, he (rather aggressively) shouldered his way past Gojo and knelt down on the floor beside Kaia, gently touching her shoulder and urging her awake.

"Kaia? Sweetheart, it's time to wake up," he said softly.

"I'm sorry, Satoru," her mother said. She held her hand out to Gojo and he shook it with an easy smile on his face that Maha didn't trust. "I'm Ren. Kaito… He's just a protective father who found his youngest daughter asleep next to a boy. I'm sure you can understand."

"Oh, I understand. Don't worry," Gojo said, plunging his hands back into his pockets and winking at Ren and Maha over the rim of his sunglasses. "Clothes stayed on the whole time."

Maha rolled her eyes. She felt a new sense of disdain for the boy despite being indebted to him for saving her sister's life. This was a serious situation and here he was cracking jokes like an old family friend.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard her sister groaning. Maha looked around her mother's frame just in time to see Kaia pull herself up into a seated position, rubbing her temples and squeezing her eyes shut. Her father still knelt beside her, watching her every movement to make sure she was okay.

"Sweetheart? Are you okay?" her father asked.

"Yeah," Kaia muttered, eyes still screwed shut in pain. "Just have a pounding headache."

Her father let out a breath and looked directly at her mother now.

"How did a curse get in this house when we have seals at every entrance?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, about that. Can I have a word with you two?" Gojo asked. The cocky smile disappeared from his face and a calmer, neutral expression took its place. He carefully divided his attention between both of Maha's parents and her mother nodded her head right away.

"Maha, stay with Kaia," she instructed as she led Gojo and her father down the hall and into the kitchen or living room. Maha couldn't be sure which. She entered Kaia's room now that everyone had gone and sat beside her little sister, watching her closely.

"You have got to stop freaking me out like this," Maha said. Her eyes watered and Kaia gave her a tired smile.

"Sorry. Did you call the school last night? Is that why Gojo is here?" she asked.

Maha nodded and cleared her throat, "Mom and Dad always leave us that one contact for jujutsu emergencies. I've never called it before, but it actually goes to Yaga. I told him what happened and he sent Gojo out here. I don't know how he got here so fast though because he called me not long after and said you were fine."

"It probably has to do with his cursed technique. Apparently, Gojo's the strongest and I haven't been given a reason to think otherwise yet," Kaia said. Her voice was scratchy and Maha looked around to see a glass of water nearby on the floor. She handed it to her sister and Kaia eagerly accepted, downing the whole glass in one go.

"Mom and Dad are gonna kill us," Maha said when Kaia finished the glass.

"Yeah. And Yaga is gonna dig up my remains when they're done and kill me a second time," Kaia grumbled. Maha felt bad and looked at the floor. This was twice now Kaia had been injured because of her. She was the worst sister ever.

"Hey, stop looking all depressed. I don't care what they say. I'm glad I was here. That curse would have killed you otherwise," Kaia said. She stood up and Maha followed suit, leaving the bedroom and joining their parents in the other room.

"Yeah. I guess so."

"I know so," Kaia said right away. "It almost killed me and I'm a sorcerer. Someone without cursed energy wouldn't have stood a chance."

Maha didn't have a response to that, so she kept quiet. Once they reached the kitchen though, she wished they'd stayed in the bedroom because their mother's face was pale and their father was pacing the kitchen floor all while Gojo leaned against the counter with his arms crossed. She wasn't sure what they walked into, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"You two. With me. Now," their mother said, grabbing them both by the upper arms and dragging them into the next room.

Maha and Kaia were deposited on the couch while their mother shut the TV off, opened all the curtains in the room so they were bathed in natural light, and promptly stood in front of them with her arms crossed over her chest and her lip curled.

"We leave you two alone for one night and what is the first thing you do? Go to a bonfire without either my approval or your father's approval with a bunch of rowdy high school brats we don't know where you're all so drunk you don't even notice that curses are closing in," their mother spat. Maha sunk into herself while Kaia sighed and crossed her arms.

"You're lucky Yaga was in town that night, otherwise you both would be dead. Then what happens next? Kaia, you're taken to school and then you leave campus without expression permission from your parents or Yaga and wind up back here in yet another fight with a curse!"

"I won't let you yell at me for that," Kaia interrupted. Maha's eyes doubled in size as she shot a terrified look at her sister.

"Kaia! What are you doing?" she hissed.

"You don't get to yell at me for being here last night. The house is supposed to be sealed and it wasn't and Maha would have died without me," Kaia said, completely ignoring her and looking directly into their mother's eyes.

"Oh really?" their mother drawled, eyes narrowing into tiny slits. "Because from where I'm standing, you almost died too."

"But I didn't! I knew what to do and—"

"You did not know what to do, so help me God, Kaia Murakami. You nearly got yourself killed!"

"I did too!" Kaia argued back, standing up from the couch and defying their mother head-on. Maha's jaw went slack and she covered her mouth with her hands as she watched. "I knew that curse was way stronger than me, so I knew our only option was to run. Yes, I probably should have taken us directly to the front door instead of grabbing the cursed tool from my room, but at least it gave Maha some protection in case the thing went for her first. I knew exactly what to do. It isn't my fault the thing grabbed me and yanked me back inside! At least Maha got out safely and called for backup!"

"You will not speak to me in that tone, Young Lady."

"Well, what else am I supposed to do? You're standing there yelling at me when the reality is that it's a good thing I was here! Yes, I broke the rules and yes, I'm sorry. I'm sure Yaga will make me run perimeters for a month and have his cursed corpses kick my ass on the daily and I can accept that. But what if I wasn't here, huh? What if Maha died because you and Dad couldn't properly place wards around the house? What then? What if she died because you were incompetent?"

Slap!

Maha gasped, hands still covering her mouth as her mother slapped Kaia right across the face, plunging the room into a deafening silence.

Maha's eyes watered, watching the way Kaia very slowly put her hand to her now red cheek and watching the way their mother put her hands over her own mouth as if she couldn't believe what she'd just done.

"What the hell is going on in here?" their father demanded, walking into the living room a second later.

"Kaia, Sweetheart, I'm so sorr—" their mother tried, reaching for Kaia.

It didn't work. Kaia shouldered away from their mother before she could touch her. She grabbed the bag she had brought over last night and swung it over her shoulder, hand still pressed against her cheek, green eyes that mirrored their mother's rimmed with red. Maha watched as she stormed into the kitchen, grabbed Satoru Gojo by the wrist, and said a low, "let's go" before storming out and slamming the door shut behind her.

"You okay?" Gojo finally spoke after they'd gotten settled on the train. She sat directly across from him and averted her eyes by staring out the window. It was easier to do that than it was to look him in the face after he had just witnessed her own mother slapping her across the face.

"Fine," Kaia muttered. She didn't understand why he had chosen to sit with her for the whole ride back. Surely, he could have sat somewhere else and picked up some pretty girl to entertain him the rest of the way, right?

"…That happen often?" he asked after an awkward moment of silence.

"No. Never," Kaia said with a sigh. She could feel heat behind her eyes and looked away from the window so she could stare at the ceiling lights of the train, hoping the fluorescent light would dry out her eyes and chase the tears away before they could fall.

"Heat of the moment," he suggested.

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever," she said beneath her breath.

She kept staring at the light, feeling the phantom sting in her cheek. Her eyes would get hot. She'd stare harder at the light. She'd feel the sting in her cheek. And on and on it'd go.

"You know, that curse last night wasn't very strong. I'm surprised you couldn't handle it on your own."

For once, Kaia felt thankful for Gojo because his stupid little comment was a welcomed distraction from the turmoil going on in her heart and head. She pulled her eyes away from the light and blinked at Gojo until the sunspots in her vision disappeared so the only thing she could focus on was his pretty face.

"Are you kidding? It had to have least been a Grade 1."

"Nah," he said immediately. "I exorcised it in less than three seconds."

"How? My cursed fire did nothing to it!" she snapped, knowing full too well that she needed to lower her damn voice. She didn't care though. She knew that the curse had to be at the very least a Grade 1. It wouldn't have affected the entire house, snuck up on her so easily, or knocked her out so quickly. No way in hell, Satoru Gojo be damned.

But then he leaned forward and glanced at her over the rim of his glasses so those incredible sky bright eyes connected with hers.

"Because you're not that strong. You've got all the potential in the world. You just won't use it," he said in a low voice that gave her goosebumps.

She clenched her jaw.

"How do you know what I have and don't have?"

He didn't miss a beat. He smirked, still looking at her with his eyes revealed.

"Because I can see you, Kaia Murakami."

She blamed her reaction on the fact that Satoru Gojo was objectively a good-looking guy who was leaning way too close to her and talking in a way too gentle of a tone. She blamed it on the fact that her emotions were raw and her nerves were frayed. She blamed it on the fact that this was twice now he'd been her rescuer.

But her heart skipped a beat and her cheeks caught on goddamn fire. Her mind conjured memories and images of moments she was sure never happened, moments that included his warm hand on her shoulder and him falling asleep beside her.

She hated it.

"Shut up, Gojo," she finally said after she had taken far too long to respond.

He chuckled and leaned back from her, getting comfortable in his seat and acting as if nothing ever happened.

"Wake me up when we get there."

She rolled her eyes and went back to staring at the window.

"Asshole."

*Author's note*

See y'all next week! Drop a review with some feedback thanks!