Chapter 10

Kaia had been showering when it happened. She had slept well the night before. She didn't dream of any dilapidated houses or images of her own corpse. In fact, she dreamt of nothing. It had been great. It had been the first time she slept through the whole night in months. And she felt energized as she showered before her first day of classes as a second-year. She'd been rinsing the conditioner out of her long hair when it happened.

The lullaby. It echoed in the bathroom.

"Don't you weep pretty babe. Don't you weep pretty babe. She's long gone with her red shoes on. Gonna need another lovin' baby."

The effect was instantaneous. Kaia gasped and took a step back but lost her footing and slipped on what must have been spilled conditioner. When her legs went out from underneath her, she smacked her head against the hard tile wall and completely lost consciousness.

When she came to, she didn't know how much time had passed, but her fingers and toes were pruned from being in the water for too long and her body was wracked with chills from the cold water that rained down on her from above.

Shoko crouched over her, big dark eyes wide with concern as she turned the water off and wrapped Kaia in a towel. She helped Kaia stand and walk her over to the sinks where she sat on the ledge and groaned, touching the back of her head. She hissed through her teeth when she saw blood on her fingertips and Shoko immediately began fussing over her and applying her reverse curse technique to the back of Kaia's skull.

"What the hell happened to you!" Shoko asked. "Yaga told me to find you after you didn't show up for the first hour of classes. Have you been here the whole time? How did you hurt your head?"

She knew she was just concerned, but the volume of Shoko's voice gave her a headache even as her friend healed her.

"I fell and it knocked me out," Kaia said.

"You just… Fell?" Shoko asked. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion and Kaia sighed.

"It's nothing, Sho."

"It's not nothing," she scolded. She reprimanded Kaia like Maha would sometimes do, though her words went in one ear and out the other. She knew she heard the lullaby. She didn't imagine it. She didn't dream it. She heard it, clear as day.

Nanami's words echoed in the back of her head. His suggestion that her dreams might be a warning.

"Are you listening to me?" Shoko asked, removing her hand from the back of Kaia's head.

"Sorry," Kaia said quickly. "I don't know what happened. I must have spilled some conditioner and—"

"Shit," Shoko said through her teeth. "Did you get this from the fall?"

"Huh?"

Shoko gestured to a spot on Kaia's back that was visible only because the towel was so loose around her body. She craned her neck over her shoulder and looked at the mirror to see what exactly her friend was looking at when she saw it. In the middle of her back was an ugly, angry red bruise. It was the size of a golf ball and she could see little dark purple splotches within it.

"Where did that come from?" Kaia asked.

Shoko sighed and lectured Kaia on needing to take better care of her body and pay attention to her injuries so she could treat them properly, but Kaia pulled away and adjusted the towel around her again.

"I understand and I'm sorry, but Yaga is going to kill me if I don't make it to class eventually," Kaia said. She ran out of the bathroom without another word, feet carrying her to her new room that she had all to herself. She was quick to don her uniform over her damp body and twist her still wet hair into a tight bun before she literally sprinted to class. Anything to avoid the realization of what just happened.

When she got there, Yaga was at the front of the classroom, discussing battle tactics. Nanami, Haibara, and Ijichi were all seated at their desks and Kaia cleared her throat awkwardly and slid into the empty desk beside Nanami that was closest to the door.

"Murakami, where have you been?" Yaga asked immediately. He leveled a cool stare at her and she shrunk into herself.

"It's gonna sound really stupid, Sir," she squeaked.

"Humor me then," he deadpanned.

She winced and said a quick, "I uh. I fell in the shower. And uh, smacked my head on the tile and passed out. Ieiri had to heal me."

Yaga stared at her blankly. He probably didn't believe her and was going to give her detention for lying.

"I thought you were more coordinated than that," Haibara said under his breath as he tried (and failed) to suppress a laugh.

"Look, it wasn't my fault! I heard something and—never mind."

"What did you hear?" Yaga pressed.

She looked down at her desk and shook her head.

"…It was nothing. I must have imagined it," she said. She didn't want to explain her dreams to Yaga right now. And she definitely didn't want to do it during class and in front of her peers. Sure, Nanami and Haibara already knew, but she really didn't want to do this right now. Or ever.

Yaga, thank God, spared her from any further questions. He did look at her a bit suspiciously when she reneged on the whole "I heard something" thing, but he didn't push it. He went back to the lecture and Kaia dutifully listened. She was determined to make a good impression this year. If Nanami already got promoted, then there was no excuse why she couldn't get promoted. She spent all break busting her ass and training. She could do things with her cursed fire she couldn't do before. She was stronger, both in terms of cursed energy output and physicality.

Yaga's lecture ended with him assigning a mission to her and Ijichi, which basically meant she would be on a solo mission. As they stood up to leave and go their respective ways, Yaga stopped her.

"Murakami, before you leave, I have something for you," he said. He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and produced a folded envelope.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Correspondence from the higher-ups," he said lowly.

Kaia quirked an eyebrow above the other and tore the envelope open. She unfolded the white paper to see a letter written in flowing cursive.

Kaia Murakami:

This letter is to address your previous mission to Okinawa where you investigated the Murakami ancestral home for any signs of cursed spirit activity. Per your report, the wards around the property remain intact and there is no cursed energy to be found. While we understand that this was your experience, we have reason to believe there are cursed spirits on the grounds.

Due to the protections placed by your father, we do not have access to the property, as only someone with Murakami blood can pass through the wards. Thus, we will be assigning you a follow up mission to your family's ancestral home. You are not to return until the influx in cursed energy has been dealt with.

You are scheduled to return to Okinawa in one month.

She shook her head, jaw going slack with each word she read. Her eyes shot up to Yaga and she found her mentor's face contorted in a frown as if he already knew the contents of the letter.

"I won't go back there. You can't make me."

"I know how you feel about the home in Okinawa but—"

"No," she said right away. "You don't know. You weren't there."

Yaga hesitated and he gave her a sympathetic sigh, "Kaia, I know your father and I know the things he's said about the house—"

"Then you understand why I won't ever go back there."

"Take some time to cool off and think about it. I know you must want to be promoted by now, especially because Nanami recently was and I know you two are close. Whether you like it or not, listening to the higher-ups and doing what they say is the fastest route to getting a promotion. Think about it," he said. He kept his tone gentle but firm, similar to the way her father and mother always did.

He could talk to her like that all he wanted. He could try and give her guidance until the sun started to rise in the west and set in the east. It would do nothing. She may have wanted a promotion, but she didn't want it badly enough to put up with the higher-ups' bullshit. She would be promoted on her own merits. Not on jumping through hoops and returning to that horrible place.

She left before she could say something she'd regret.

Kaia was exhausted by the end of the day. She sat at dinner on a bench in the cafeteria, barely even picking at her food while Haibara and Ijichi chatted. That awful bruise Shoko had found was causing a stupid amount of pain in her back, she was still freaked out about the lullaby she'd heard in the shower, and she felt sick as she remembered the letter from the higher-ups. She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes, trying to will all of the pain and discomfort away.

"Are you okay?" Nanami asked softly.

She pulled her face out of her hands and tried to give him a smile, but she knew it didn't reach her eyes.

"It's just been a weird day," she said.

"Does this have to do with what you heard in the shower?" He kept his voice quiet enough not to draw attention from Haibara or Ijichi and she was eternally grateful for that. She rubbed the back of her neck and nodded.

"I know this is going to sound crazy but I swear I'm not. I know I heard the lullaby this morning. The one from my dreams. I heard it in the shower and that's why I fell. And then Shoko found this weird bruise on me and now—"

"Gojo," Nanami said abruptly. He looked away from Kaia and beyond her shoulder at where a shadow was now cast over her. Kaia swiveled her hips to see the one and only Satoru Gojo standing there with his hands in his pockets and an easy smirk on his face.

"Nanami. Congrats on the promotion to Grade 1," he said. He shifted his attention to Kaia, looking at her with those incredible blue eyes over the bridge of his glasses. "Murakami, I'm going away on a mission for a few days so I won't be able to help you out with that problem you were having. So if you wanted my attention, this is gonna be your last chance to get me alone."

She blinked at him and noticed the way Haibara, Ijichi, and even Shoko at the other table were all watching her.

"Why do you have to make everything sound like an innuendo?" she muttered.

"I didn't think that was too much," he said with a grin. "But I can make it suggestive if you want. Just say the word and I'm all yours, Bunny."

She pretended to gag. God, he was so insufferable. Had anyone ever turned him down before? Told him he wasn't nearly as charming as he thought he was?

Still. As much as she wanted to be the one to do that, she wanted to know what the hell was going on with her technique even more. And sadly enough, she needed Satoru Gojo for that.

"Every time you call me that I lose another brain cell," she retorted. She stood up from the table and nodded at Nanami. "Unfortunately, I do need this idiot's help with something. We're not done this conversation though."

"I figured. Come find me when you're done," Nanami said as he went back to his dinner, paying her no mind as she left the cafeteria with Gojo. She couldn't say the same for Shoko or the rest of her friends though. They all looked like they were going to have a stroke as they watched her walk away.

"So you and Nanami, eh?" Gojo asked. He led them down a corridor she hadn't traveled down much, and she took care to remember their path so she didn't get lost on her way back. The school was huge and had all sorts of hidden passageways and rooms. And Kaia really didn't want to have to stumble around and ask Gojo to help her find the dorms when this was over.

"What about it? He's my friend," she responded.

"That's all? I doubt it."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"A girl who looks like you? C'mon. I'm not stupid. Girls like you always sleep around with their guy friends," he said casually, as if saying something as simple as the sky was blue or the grass was green.

Her mouth dropped.

"What!" she shrieked.

He grinned and stopped outside of one of the training rooms, sliding the door open and ushering her inside. There were no windows in there. Only wooden floors, some rolled up mats propped against the wall, and weapons in a nearby black chest.

"You heard me," he said.

Her cheeks flushed and she scoffed hard enough that she almost wondered if she popped a blood vessel. "Just because you're a scumbag doesn't mean everyone you meet also is. Believe it or not, Nanami is my friend and only my friend."

"Thou doth protest too much," Gojo said easily.

"Yeah, all right. I've never even held hands with a boy, let alone sleep with one," she said without thinking better of it, without thinking that Gojo might use that as ammunition to harass her even further.

She was right. He did.

His grin widened and suddenly he was all up in her personal space, walking closer and closer until her back hit the wall and she was face to face with his chest. She looked up at him, mentally cursing him for being so goddamn tall. She was overwhelmed with his presence in an instant, feeling the heat radiating from his body and smelling the sandalwood soap he must have used.

Her traitorous stomach fluttered.

"Wait, wait, wait," he said. He planted a hand on the wall directly beside her head, still grinning. "Are you a virgin?"

Her face felt warm. She didn't know why. It wasn't like she was embarrassed by her lack of experience. She wasn't. She'd been training her whole life. She never had time to meet boys and secretly date around like her sister had. Yet for some reason, the way Gojo looked at her made her feel small and embarrassed and helpless.

"That's none of your business!" she snapped.

"Oh, Bunny. You're such a good girl, aren't you?"

She had enough. She planted her hands on the wide planes of his chest and shoved him away from her.

"You're disgusting. And stop calling me that," she snarled.

He snickered and held his hands up in surrender.

"All right, all right. I'll ease up for now. So what's going on with your technique?" he said, smile still on his face but teasing tone finally gone.

"I've been trying to use it all summer and every time I activate it, all I see are parts of your domain. It's like whatever the hell that comes over me when I activate it is looking for something. I don't know if it's looking for you or just infinity or whatever. But I'd like to not get a splitting migraine every time I try to train the technique," she said. She crossed her arms over her body, feeling a little self-conscious for some reason. She expected Gojo to tease her or make fun of her for her lack of control, but he did no such thing. He just listened with an even expression and remained in thoughtful silence for a few moments.

"Interesting," he said. He plunged his hands into the pockets of his pants and cocked his head to the side. "Can you activate it now?"

She winced.

"I really don't like activating it without my father around. He's the only person that's ever consistently been able to bring me back," she admitted.

"I can bring you back. I did last time, remember?"

She did. She vividly remembered and she was not eager to relive that awful experience. She had never been in such an excruciating amount of pain before in her life. When Gojo brought her back it'd been through activating his domain, which left her damn near paralyzed with the vast knowledge of infinity. He had to literally knock her out to make her fall asleep, and even then, she'd suffered from headaches for a month as her body tried to readjust.

"You did and that's what caused all of this," she said, opting not to tell him the real reason for her hesitancy.

"I guess. Your sister brought you back that one time too," he suggested.

Kaia only had a vague recollection of that moment, but she could somewhat recall Maha using the same words her father always had. And she could recall the same feeling of love overwhelming her that shocked her back to reality.

"Yeah, but I love my sister. Her words hold more weight than yours."

He laughed, "fair enough, but I can't help you if I don't see what's going on."

She sighed. He was right. And he knew that she knew he was right.

"Can you actually control your technique now?" he asked when she didn't respond.

"Not yet, but I can retain some lucidity for a little bit. That's leaps and bounds ahead from where I was last time you saw it activated," she answered.

He let out a thoughtful hum and outstretched his hand.

"Take my hand."

"Why?"

"Or don't. I just want to try something and I need to touch you for it to work."

She could feel herself pouting as she stared at his stupidly large hand. Damn. Everything about him was big. He was tall, his legs were long, his shoulders and chest were broad, and his hands were so big. She had the absent thought that he probably could have wrapped his entire hand around her throat with little to no effort, and suddenly she could feel the top of her chest turn red and she didn't want him to notice her hesitance. So without saying anything, she grabbed his hand and waited.

"Don't let go," he said in a low voice that made it all too clear that it was a warning and not a suggestion. He took off his glasses, held up his spare hand, crossed his middle finger over his index finger and said a quiet, "infinite void."

She'd been lost to her cursed moon technique the last time he activated his domain around her and she quickly realized that last time his domain had been incomplete. But as infinity washed around them, plunging her into a white and gray world that was quiet and gentle somehow, she didn't panic. She felt calm as she looked around her. Knowledge didn't flood her head until she was keeled over in agony like last time. Rather, everything surrounded them but none of it touched her and she simply was. She simply existed.

She immediately found herself looking for Gojo even though she could still feel his callused palm in hers, and the relief that she felt was instantaneous when she found him. He hadn't left her alone to wander the domain. He was right there, exactly where she'd left him, those otherworldly sky-bright eyes on full display.

"I perfected my domain after my mission with Geto. I had a feeling I could bring someone in here without inflicting damage as long as I was touching them, but I've never tried it before," he said. His voice somehow sounded eons away and intimately close all at once. She distantly wanted to snap at him for using her as his guinea pig, but she felt too calm to yell at him.

"Kaia, activate your technique," he said gently.

She found that she didn't have it in her to argue with him. She found herself bending to him so easily and willingly, even though she never would have activated her technique in any other situation.

She closed her eyes. There was a satisfying pressure all around her, weighing down on her with the knowledge of everything. It was almost comical how pleasurable the weight of it all was when Gojo was still touching her, shielding her from the danger… But deep down she knew that if she lost contact with him, the weight would crush her until there would be nothing left.

Grounding herself the way her father instructed, Kaia called on her technique and let it overwhelm her. She let the icy coolness run through her veins. Let the power and heightened awareness control her senses. She let it take control of her, but she was careful not to lose herself.

She braced herself for what happened next, for when her technique showed her broken images of Gojo's incomplete domain and left her with a splitting migraine. She didn't realize it at the time, but she squeezed Gojo's hand tighter and tighter until her fingernails dug into his skin.

It happened. Painful reminders of his incomplete domain jolted through her head. She gritted her teeth, fighting for control of her body, and held her breath as pain thundered in her skull.

"Gojo," she said through her teeth.

"Open your eyes," he instructed.

She did, the pain still splitting her mind in half. But when she opened her eyes and her sensitive vision took in his domain, the pain ceased. She found herself frantically looking all around her. Though it wasn't herself, not really. It was the thing that possessed her while she used her technique. It was looking for answers maybe. Or something else.

But then she looked at Gojo and the panic that controlled her body gradually faded. The technique was no longer fixated on the incompleteness of infinity or answers or anything else. Instead, she stared into Gojo's beautiful eyes and relished in the comforting pressure that bore down on her very soul.

And then she lost herself entirely.

Kaia's technique wasn't normal. Gojo already knew that, but here inside his domain with the answers to the universe all around him, he could feel how abnormal it really was. He looked at her, his Six Eyes showing him her cursed energy and the activated technique. But they showed him something else too. Something that shouldn't have been possible.

There was another presence within her. Like another soul.

It was small and fluttery like a bird, but he could also feel fear and something else emanating from it. It was something that made her cursed energy start blazing uncontrollably around her.

It was rage. God, there was so much rage from that extra presence.

He could see the exact moment that Kaia lost control of her technique and the exact moment the other entity took control. Her hand had been clenching onto his for dear life, and then suddenly it was the other way around. Suddenly, she was trying to pull away from him and he was the one trying to hold onto her. He noticed that the tension that had smoothed from her face when they first entered his domain returned. Her brow creased and her jaw clenched. And she tried to jerk her hand away from his with a strength that he knew was not her own.

"What a strange technique this is," he said to himself, yanking her towards him so he could grab her other wrist and keep her still. If necessary, he could have let her go and let the full force of his domain shock her back into lucidity, but he wasn't sure he wanted to do that again if it meant causing her more pain and stress.

It was too bad she had to lose control so suddenly. There was something oddly peaceful about having her in his domain. There was something comforting in her presence that he found himself genuinely enjoying.

He deactivated his domain, curious to see if it would have any effect on her. It did, but only that she seemed stunned for a short second. But then she was furious again, glowing eyes wild as she fought with him to let her go. He didn't dare release her for fear of her going rampant and ruining the training room. Yaga would kill both of them if that happened. So he kept a hold on her and shoved away the guilt that he felt from the fact he was likely bruising her wrists.

"Kaia," he said. "Can you hear me?"

She snarled at him in response, rage pouring from body.

"Okay, clearly not," he said just as she ripped her wrist free of his hold.

Ah shit.

The good thing was that she seemed preoccupied with trying to maim him or something else because she didn't try running off or immediately go for destroying the room. Instead, she lunged at him.

With the newfound control he had over his own techniques, it was easy for him to teleport away from her. And all of the future-sight in the world wasn't enough to grant her the ability to see where exactly he was going to land.

Damn. If only he'd thought to have her sister on speed dial. What had she said at the bonfire that brought Kaia back? What were those trigger words?

"Kaia, come back," he tried just as she landed what would have been a painful blow to his stomach, but instead bounced off his infinity.

She faltered in her movements but lunged for him again. He sidestepped her, knowing that her future-sight would allow her to see that that was his next move, and immediately teleported so their backs touched instead.

He was on the right track.

"Kaia, come back to me," he tried again.

She stopped. He pivoted on his heel so their backs no longer touched and so they were face to face again. The technique was still activated, evident by the glowing eyes and the glowing circle in the middle of her forehead, but she wasn't lunging at him anymore. She seemed to be trying to fight for lucidity.

Maybe he should have brought her back into his domain like before. He just needed to get a steady enough hold on her to do it.

Whatever Maha had said to her worked all those months ago. And clearly whatever Maha had said was what her father said every time she was lost to the chaos of the technique. He just didn't know what the trigger word was and he wondered if maybe he could piss her off into remembering who she really was.

"Aw come on now. You're stronger than that. Come back, Bunny," he tried.

"Gojo," she spat through her teeth.

He smirked. So pissing her off somewhat worked. It had to do something because she wasn't trying to kill him despite the technique still being active. She stood still, though her body would occasionally twitch like she was struggling to keep it still. He used that to his advantage and grabbed her bicep, yanking her against his chest and activating his domain once again.

His domain expanded around them for a second time and he could hear her suck in a breath as if she'd just jumped into a cold pool. He glanced at where she was struggling in his hold and leaned down.

"What do I have to say to snap you out of this?" he asked, hoping she was still somewhat lucid.

He watched her jaw clench impossibly hard but she still couldn't answer him.

"Kaia," he said again. He softened his voice like he was her sister or someone else she loved. He kept a strong hold on her but pulled her a little closer to his chest. Maybe there weren't any magic words. Maybe he just had to pretend to be someone that she loved for it to work. Maybe that's why Maha had been able to save her little sister. Maybe he just had to act like they were closer than they really were to trigger the part of her that fought off the technique. He just hoped that the softness of his voice mixed with the calmness of his domain would do it.

"Kaia, come back to me," he said gently like a lover.

She snapped out of it, groaning and falling against his chest.

He let his domain fall away as he caught her. He found that the wall was at his back and he leaned against it, carefully sliding to the floor as he held her in his arms. She was in his lap once they were on the floor. Her head lolled against the crook of his neck and her arms hung limp at her side. He could feel her soft breath tickle his skin with each sigh and he very gently nudged her.

"You okay?" he asked, not really expecting her to be awake.

"Yeah," she said, voice hoarse. "Just… Gimme a sec."

He was happy to oblige her as she used him as a mattress. He held her against him, one hand on her back, the other under her knees. He wasn't sure what it was, but after having her in his domain like that, he felt oddly protective of her. He wondered if he would feel the same way about someone else if he brought them into his infinite void. But the more he considered it, the more he thought about bringing in Shoko or even Utahime, the more he decided he didn't want to try. He was realizing it had been more of an intimate experience than he intended and he wasn't keen on sharing that with just anyone.

To be honest, he wouldn't have even shared it with Kaia had he known what was going to happen, but there was something that calmed him as he held her in his arms after that experience. They stayed like that for a little longer. Gojo would have been fine to let her sleep on him all night if she needed to, but after a few minutes, she stirred and struggled to sit up.

"How's your head?" he asked as she slid out of his lap and sat with her back pressed against the wall directly beside him.

"It hurts, but it always hurts after I use it. But uh. I think you cured me? I was able to keep some sense of lucidity without also losing my mind," she said. "What'd you do?"

He put his sunglasses back on and shrugged.

"All I did was bring you into my perfected domain," he said, hesitating to tell her everything he saw. "My Six Eyes show me everything. They see everything. And I saw something that shouldn't have been possible."

"What'd you see?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know. It looked like another soul, but not quite. It looked incomplete. I guess it makes sense since your cursed moon technique acts like a possession, but it was jarring to see for myself. Maybe whatever I saw—whatever that thing is residing within your technique? Maybe it was stunted by my domain. Maybe the incompleteness was too much for it or it was trapped," he said. He narrowed his eyes at where she sat, looking for that same black shadow that had been there the previous night. He didn't see it, but he still felt an odd sense of unease when he looked at where it had been. It was almost like she'd been marked with something and it was hiding from him.

"I never considered another presence or soul in me, but yeah. The technique feels like I'm being possessed. So maybe that makes the most sense. I don't know," she said. Her voice lacked its usual edge and she rubbed the back of her neck. "How'd you bring me back? Usually, only my dad can do it."

"Your sister did once," he pointed out.

"Yeah, because she used the same words as my father and because she's my sister. You shouldn't have been able to do that," she said.

He shrugged. "You won't like my answer."

She gave a soft laugh, "try me."

He smirked and decided to indulge her, knowing full well that he might fluster her to the point that this newfound nicer side of her would likely evaporate into thin air and she would go back to hating him. And honestly, part of him wanted that because this new feeling that he had? This weird sense of protectiveness he felt after unknowingly sharing something so intimate with her? It made him nervous and he didn't like it.

"I brought you into my domain because you seemed calm there and then I spoke to you like I was your lover. Seemed to have done the trick," he said as his smirk turned into a full-blown shit-eating grin.

It worked.

"You're disgusting," she said with an eye roll. She planted her hands on the floor and pushed herself back up, still heavily using the wall for support since her technique must have used up quite a bit of energy. But as she was halfway up, she yelped like a kicked dog and immediately put a hand to the middle of her back.

"What was that?" he asked, following her lead and standing up. He immediately looked for that little shadow over her shoulder again, but it was nowhere to be found.

"Shit," she hissed. She struggled with her uniform, unbuttoning her jacket and throwing it to the floor and then pulling her white undershirt up and desperately trying to look over her shoulder at her midback but failing miserably.

Gojo looked for her and grimaced.

There was a bruise in the dead center of her back that was carefully blooming towards her lower back. It was bigger than a baseball and angrier than the usual wounds he'd seen most people get on missions. The bruise was blood red and the little veins and blood vessels inside it were a deep dark purple. But most notably, when he looked at the bruise, he could see residuals of cursed energy.

He just couldn't identify who they were from. And there was something off about them that made him think no one could.

"Where'd you get this? A mission?" he asked right away, reaching out and carefully touching her back to feel that the bruise was hot.

"I haven't been on a mission since last term," she said. "How bad is it? Shoko found it this morning and it was the size of a golf ball."

"Oh, it's bigger than that," he hummed. He looked at it longer, but the residuals were slowly dissipating. "The blow that gave you this was imbued with cursed energy. I can see residuals, but they're fading and unusual."

He could feel her tense suddenly and he withdrew his hand as she dropped her shirt. She kept her lips pursed in a tight line as she picked her sweater up and paused to look him in the eye.

He held his breath for some reason and waited for her to break the silence.

"Gojo, there was no blow. I didn't have that yesterday."

He blamed the moment they just had on the fierce wave of concern that overcame him, but he immediately frowned and was filled with the desire to keep Kaia nearby and shield her from whatever the fuck it was that was cursing her with shit. First, there had been the broken seals at her house. Then, there had been that shadow behind her and now this?

He didn't like it. Not one bit.

"You should tell Yaga about this," he said because he had no idea what else to say to her and she was looking at him with big green eyes that were so obviously worried.

She sighed and rubbed her hands over her face, whining as she did. He wanted to help her, but he didn't know how.

"Right," she said beneath her breath.

"Come on, I'll walk you back," he offered, reaching forward and laying a hand between her shoulders. She didn't cringe away from his touch like he expected. Instead, she just nodded and walked a little closer to him, still clearly freaked out.

The walk to her room was filled with comfortable silence. In fact, the silence had him so relaxed and at ease that he found he didn't even want to start teasing her and giving her a hard time.

That may or may not have stressed him out a bit.

What the hell? Was this what he got for bringing her into his domain? Was he not supposed to do that? He didn't know it was going to be such an intimate experience. He just thought it would fix the problem she'd been having with her cursed technique. How the hell was he supposed to know that doing that with someone would suddenly make him give a shit about them or feel closer?

What the fuck.

"Thanks, Gojo," Kaia said, interrupting his thoughts when they reached her dorm. "Can we maybe just keep this between us? I know I should tell Yaga. I'm just not sure what good that will do."

He nodded right away and leaned against her doorframe after she'd pushed the door open and laid her sweater over the nearby desk. She sat on the edge of it and pulled her hair out of the twisted bun it'd been in all day, causing it to fall in loose, deep red waves around her face.

His mouth felt dry for some reason.

"Yeah, sure thing," he said. He lingered in the doorway and she raised her eyebrows at him when he didn't move or say anything else, silently asking him what he was still doing there. And damnit, he really wished she hadn't because it just made her dark green eyes look bigger and more inviting.

He gave a quick head nod and cleared his throat, hoping he still seemed casual and nonchalant.

"You got a cell phone yet? Or are you still using the school's phone?"

She rolled those emerald eyes and said a bored, "sorry, we're not all spoiled like you. But yeah, I got one for my birthday."

"Take my number then," he said. "I'll be gone for a few days on this mission, but you should let me know if you notice anything weird with your technique or that bruise on your back. If you won't tell anyone else, at least keep me in the know."

Her expression softened and she suddenly nodded.

"Yeah, okay. That's actually a good idea. Thanks," she said. They produced their phones and plugged each other's numbers in.

And just to keep some semblance of sanity before he absolutely lost his damn mind over these weird new feelings he was having, he ended the exchange with a snarky, "and don't be afraid to text me if you get lonely or a little needy, Bunny."

"Ugh!" she snapped, getting up from the desk and quite literally slamming the door in his face.

He chuckled and started to walk back to his room. Once he was a little further away, he huffed and massaged the back of his neck.

He was never going to bring anyone into his domain like that ever again.

*Author's note*

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