Chapter 11
"You can't master the technique because you won't pay homage to where its power comes from."
Kaia looked at an older man who stood in front of her. He looked like he was maybe a few years older than her father and had hair that was even redder than her own. Where hers had been more of a dark brown with a hint of red, his was almost entirely a deep, dark amber. His hair was as long as Geto's, left down in a wild manner, and he wore plain black robes. His brown eyes glinted as a nasty scowl etched itself onto his face.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"You don't recognize your own blood. I blame Kaito for that. The fool," he spat.
Kaia turned in a semi-circle and looked all around her. She was surrounded by trees and overgrown brush and nature. And then, behind the man's shoulders, was a stagnant pond covered in a thick layer of green algae.
She realized in an instant that she was in Okinawa, on the family's ancestral property.
"You're my grandfather…" she said quietly. "Kaname."
"You may be slow but at least you catch on. Quicker than your coward of a father," he snapped.
"You're not real. None of this is. I'm going to wake up and I'll be alone in my dorm and—"
"Oh, it's real. The cursed moon technique can guarantee that," he said. He took long strides, very slowly circling her. "You fear it. I understand given how difficult it is to control. But going to the Gojo boy will not help you. You must return to Okinawa to master it."
Kaia was confused. Surely, this was all just a dream. Right?
But it felt so real. She could feel the humidity of the island all around. She could smell the putrid odor from the pond.
"I went to Gojo because my technique was screwed up because of him. It's fixed now," she said when Kaname stood directly at her back.
"It won't ever be fixed until you return to Okinawa. Pray at the shrines. Offer up your cursed energy. You'll be rewarded."
No. She would not return to Okinawa, and if by some miracle she did, she would certainly not return to the Murakami ancestral grounds. And she sure as hell would never pray at those awful shrines.
"The shrines are incomplete. One of them was ruined," she said. She had a horrible time struggling to get the words out and the smell of the pond was starting to make her ill.
"Ruined but not destroyed."
She shook her head and held back the urge to gag. It smelled worse than rotten meat. Smelled like death.
"No."
"No? And what happens then, eh? What happens when the little girl finally kills you? Do you think you can hold her off by refusing to master the technique? Do you think you can bury your head in the sand when there is danger on the horizon?"
What the hell was he going on about?
Kaia whipped around until she stood face to face with her grandfather. Only now, his eyes weren't brown. Now they glowed whitish-purple and a solid circle glowed in the center of his forehead. She took a step back but his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.
"Let go of me! My father was right to leave!"
"He was wrong," Kaname said. His voice was gravelly and hoarse, and it echoed in her eardrums. "He put you all at risk by running. They've never understood our family. They think a special grade curse made us what we are. They will come for you. All of you. And when that time comes, the only thing that will save you will be your cursed moon technique."
She gritted her teeth and pulled back on her wrist, but Kaname held her tighter.
"Who? Who will come for us?"
"You must return to Okinawa."
"Grandfather, who is going to come for us?"
"You understand, Kaia Murakami? You must return to Okinawa."
Her eyes snapped open. She was alone in her dorm, broken beams of sunlight trickling through the window. Her chest rose and fell in rapid succession and she felt ill. So terribly ill. She could almost taste the putrid air of that stagnant pond on her tongue.
The dream had felt so real. They'd all been feeling too real for so long now. Though, she had never dreamt of her grandfather before. She also had never dreamt of the house in Okinawa. And… Her grandfather made it sound like the dream was real somehow? But that couldn't be possible.
But then she thought of Nanami's words and his hypothesis that her dreams might be a warning and her heart dropped.
She rubbed her hands down her face. She didn't have time for this. She had a mission with Ijichi soon and she needed to get ready for that. Everything was going to be just fine. She wasn't going to wake up with her throat cut, she wasn't going back to Okinawa, and she wasn't going to pray to any creepy shrines. Hell no.
She went through her morning routine, showering (without falling and cracking her head open), and dressing for the day. She only paused to look at the bruise on her back. It was definitely bigger than it was yesterday. She wondered if it was bigger than it was last night. Part of her wanted to call Gojo but it wasn't like there was anything he could do for her. So she ignored it, ate a quick breakfast, and met Ijichi and one of the auxiliary managers whose names she didn't know outside.
"Ready?" the manager asked.
They both nodded and got into the car, listening to the manager give them the rundown on what they could expect.
"You two will be meeting up with first-grade sorcerer Mei Mei. There's a mansion on the outskirts of the city and there's been ongoing cursed spirit activity around the area, most notably a Grade 1 spirit. I need to emphasize that you two are only there to serve as support. Mei Mei can handle exorcising the curse on her own, but we need someone who can put up a strong curtain and someone who can cover her back. Kids have been wandering around the house for weeks now and several have died. Ijichi, you'll erect the curtain while Murakami serves as back up. Murakami, I've been given instructions to make you understand that you are just the support and that is all. Understood?" the manager said, looking at her and Ijichi in the rearview mirror.
"Yes, Sir," they said in unison.
"Good."
The rest of the drive was quiet but that was fine because they reached their destination in less than thirty minutes.
To call the house a mansion would have been an understatement. It looked like a damn mega mansion, probably owned by some oil or steel billionaire. The house was as big as most college campuses and it was just as modern. The exterior was all white, there were massive windows that took up entire walls, a pool, a carport that probably could have accommodated twenty or so cars, and palm trees. Kaia didn't even know you could plant palm trees in the area.
"Oh the person who owns this is rich rich," she said with her eyes wide.
"I see why kids keep breaking in. What happened to the owner?" Ijichi asked.
"He went insane and murdered his wife and four children and then killed himself," a sultry voice said from behind them. Mei Mei walked over to them, light blue hair pulled into a slick ponytail. "Sound familiar, Murakami?"
Kaia planted a hand on her hip and said a tight, "no. It doesn't."
Mei Mei smirked.
"Right. Well, I shouldn't have any trouble exorcising the curse, but I'll need your help to drive it out. Sound good?"
"I'll put up the curtain now," Ijichi said. He made a hand sign and said a low, "emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
The curtain went up, shielding them and the mansion with a black sky. Kaia looked to her side at Mei Mei and followed the older girl into the mansion.
"My crows have found the curse in the basement, but it's a slippery one. I've been trying to exorcise the damn thing for two days now. Every time I get close it vanishes. Your job is to help me keep it one place," Mei Mei said. "Think you can do that?"
"I don't see why not," Kaia said.
They walked through the house, past the expansive kitchen, past the literal movie theater, until they reached a set of double doors that took them into the basement. The cursed energy was all around them and as soon as Mei Mei opened the door it swelled up just beyond them and actually pushed Kaia a step back.
"Don't chicken out on me. I heard you were supposed to be strong," Mei Mei drawled. She walked ahead and Kaia stayed a few steps behind, wincing at the sheer force of the cursed energy all around them.
"I am. It just caught me off guard," she said.
"Don't let it."
Kaia fought the urge to roll her eyes. There was something about Mei Mei that reminded her an awful lot of Gojo. Maybe it was the confidence.
She wondered what Gojo was doing right now. Probably on his overseas mission exorcising a special grade curse. She also wondered what he usually did after he completed a mission. Did he hang around in whatever city he was in? Did he go sightseeing? She felt like he was the type of guy who would.
Or did he find random beautiful women to sleep with? She wondered if he was actually any good in bed or if he was one of those guys who secretly sucked because he put in zero effort because he knew he was hotter than hell.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. What the hell was wrong with her? Why was she thinking about him in the middle of a mission? And why was she thinking about what he would be like in bed of all things? God, she was so stupid.
"There you are," Mei Mei purred.
Kaia sidestepped the older girl and looked at where the cursed spirit seemed to be napping? Laying there quietly? She didn't know. It was a massive figure, at least ten feet tall. It was wide too, almost like a cartoon character. It had an ugly greyish purple body, giant bug eyes, and an unnaturally large mouth that was filled with blunt human teeth. It had four arms and was sluggishly sprawled out on the concrete floor of the basement and it blinked at them five or six times before it acted.
It roared and its voice was loud enough that Kaia could feel her left eardrum immediately rupture and blood trickle down the side of her face. She winced and watched it pull itself up on skinny little legs and jump up. It started to bleed into the ceiling, passing right through it like a veil.
She tasted smoke on her tongue and breathed a small stream of highly concentrated blue flames at the thing's feet and two of its remaining arms. The more potent, powerful flames were a new thing for her, something she mastered over the break. They were easier to use when she was accompanied by another sorcerer and did twice as much damage as her uncontrolled flames did.
The thing screamed again but Kaia reinforced her ears with cursed energy to prevent another rupture and it fell to the ground, no longer trying to float through the ceiling. The concrete cracked beneath their feet and Mei Mei acted immediately, swinging an axe she procured from somewhere Kaia didn't know and attacking the curse now that it was screaming on the floor in pain.
It swung its massive arms around which she expertly dodged. But then it screamed and the vibrations from the sound violently knocked Mei Mei back until she went flying and crashed into one of the concrete walls.
It would have shattered the back of anyone who didn't reinforce their bodies with cursed energy and killed anyone who wasn't a sorcerer.
The curse turned its attention to Kaia now that Mei Mei was stuck where she was.
"Ah shit," Kaia muttered.
The curse swung its many arms at Kaia the way it had done to Mei Mei. She dodged it by jumping around, using her cursed energy to help her jump higher and land softer (she'd need to call and thank her mother for all the exercises that taught her how to do that). Kaia landed on one of the steps leading to the basement and watched as the curse took a big breath to scream again and do to her what it did to Mei Mei.
Kaia was faster.
She spat out little balls of blue fire and manipulated their direction so that they entered the curse's huge mouth. Holding up her first two fingers, Kaia's eyes widened and she forced the little balls of fire to explode inside of the curse's mouth.
The explosion caused the curse to lunge to the side, all while howling in pain. But it never made it to whatever it was lunging for because it collapsed into a heap of limbs and smoke. Kaia searched around for Mei Mei's axe and found it only a few steps away. She reached for it, finding it far heavier than it looked, and brought it over to the curse. While the curse was stuck laying where it was, she brought the axe over her head intending to decapitate it—thus exorcising it, when it suddenly moved one of its unburnt arms and slammed her to the floor.
The axe fell from her grip and suddenly the curse was on top of her, bearing a considerable amount of its weight on her small frame. One of its wrinkled hands clamped down over her mouth, apparently having figured out what exactly her cursed technique was, and grinned with its ugly, blistered face.
She breathed heavily through her nose, feeling blood trickle from her temples and ears. The curse sucked in a new breath, ready to kill her with the vibrations from its scream. She could feel her heartbeat racing in panic but breathed through it.
Well. She had never tried this before but what the hell, right? Breathing was breathing and her cursed technique relied on her ability to do just that.
Breathe.
She inhaled sharply through her nose, mouth still smothered with the curse's vile hand, and exhaled through her nostrils.
With it came a stream of concentrated fire.
Part of her expected the fire to singe her sinuses, but it didn't. The flames freely left her nose the same way they did her mouth, and she could manipulate their direction all the same. The fire formed what could only be described as a knife and she manipulated it with her technique until it lodged itself in the windpipe of the curse and cut off its ugly scream before it could start.
It worked. The curse didn't scream and it froze in shock.
But it didn't move its hand from her mouth and instead covered her whole face with its palm, cutting off all oxygen to her body. And she'd already depleted what was left in her lungs with that last attack.
Okay, now she was panicking.
She thrashed around. Why wasn't it dead yet? Why was it still on top of her? Her lungs burned and her head pounded as her brain cried out for oxygen. Oh, God. This was it. She wasn't going to die by the hand of the little girl. She was going to die by being smothered by a fat ugly curse. It wasn't even attacking her! It was just sitting on her!
If she could just get even a little bit of oxygen, just enough to breathe out enough fire to light a candle. Then maybe—
The curse evaporated into black mist.
Kaia greedily sucked in a breath of stale air and saw Mei Mei standing over her with her axe.
"Impressive, Murakami," she said, raising an eyebrow above the other. "You exorcised a first-grade cursed spirit."
"I did?" Kaia blurted in disbelief. She slowly pushed herself up from the ground and watched Mei Mei with fascination. "Didn't you just finish it off?"
"No," Mei Mei said. She nodded her head in the direction of the axe that was sitting over her shoulder. "I was going to but then it was gone. You damaged it more than you thought. And to think… You're only a Grade 3."
Kaia rubbed her mouth, trying to get the taste of the thing's skin off of her tongue.
"Oh."
Mei Mei smirked and planted a hand on her hip.
"I'll be including your performance in my report. Let's go," she said.
Kaia trailed behind the older girl and continued to scrub at her face with the sleeves of her jacket.
"Does that mean I'm going to get detention? They told me not to help and just be support," she muttered.
Mei Mei giggled, "heavens no."
She didn't know what was so funny, but she wasn't going to question it. When they got back outside, Ijichi seemed surprised.
"That was quick. And Murakami, you kept all your clothes on," he said, hiding a cocky little smirk on his face.
Her eye twitched.
"That was one time."
"Ooooh, do you strip when you're in a fight, Murakami? That's awfully kinky," Mei Mei said, still giggling into her hand. "I'm sure Satoru would love to hear that."
Blood rushed to Kaia's face and Ijichi erupted into a fit of uncontrolled laughter. She groaned and raked her hands through her hair.
"No! I burned my clothes off one time! Once! And why the hell do you have to bring up Gojo? He has nothing to do with this!" she whined.
Mei Mei continued to laugh and didn't bother explaining herself. Meanwhile, Ijichi removed the curtain as his chuckles died down and Kaia scowled at both of them.
Jerks.
Gojo looked around the little café somewhere in Marrakesh, palming the special grade cursed object in his pocket. His mission had been scheduled for a full week, but he exorcised the special grade cursed spirit in one night and now had a few nights to kill. The original plan had been for him to fly back to Japan and give the cursed object to Yaga, but apparently, Gojo was now on the higher-ups' shitlist and they didn't trust him with fuck all. So when he indicated that he was already done, he was told to give the special grade cursed object to another sorcerer in the area and have them return it to the school because it was "too expensive" to change his flight.
They just didn't want him back in Tokyo. He wasn't stupid.
He didn't know who the sorcerer was, the auxiliary manager didn't tell him because she didn't know either, but he was told to come to this café in the middle of a busy marketplace at high noon to make the exchange.
He sipped on heavily sweetened chai and looked around. The café was filled with natural light, gorgeous desert flowers hanging from the windows, and filled with the smell of fresh baked goods. There were worse places to wait.
Maybe it would be Mei Mei or someone else he knew. He doubted it would be Utahime though. Then again, the higher ups seemed to love her since she obediently followed all of their rules, so maybe it would be her. He smirked to himself as he drank the warm milky tea. He could have some fun with Utahime in Morocco. Though she was still mad about the whole not returning her calls thing. Maybe he could make it up to her if she was the one sent to get the cursed object.
But then the unthinkable happened and a man who had the small stature of a bird sat down across from him, wearing all black attire with copper-colored hair.
Kaito Murakami.
"This is a surprise," Gojo thought aloud. "I get the feeling you're sent on overseas missions a lot."
"I am. That's because between myself and Ren we speak twelve different languages," he said.
Gojo let out a low whistle.
"Impressive," he said. "Can Kaia speak any other languages?"
Kaito's brown eyes flashed dangerously and Gojo could only fend off a tiny smile. Ah, the protective father. Go figure.
"We're not here to talk about my daughter. Do you have the object or not?"
"It's right here," Gojo said. He dug into his pocket and pushed it across the table to the older man. He then watched in fascination as Kaito seemed to activate a cursed technique or something like it and place another, more potent, seal on the object.
Maybe that was how he placed the wards along the Okinawa property.
"Satoru," Kaito started. He looked at Gojo was remarkably steady eyes. "I'm only asking this because you're the one who found the broken seals around my home. But have you noticed anything strange with Kaia? I don't know if you two are friends, but I thought I would at least ask."
Gojo narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses and sipped on his tea again. Did he tell Kaito the truth? Kaia had asked to keep it between them.
But still. There had to be a reason why Kaito wanted to know in the first place.
"Why are you asking?"
"Because broken seals are continuing to show up around my house," Kaito deadpanned. "You could say it's bad luck or that they're just wearing down with age, but sealing is my specialty. I have a feeling that this is intentional and someone is targeting my family."
Gojo frowned. He had the same thought when he saw the broken seal over the kitchen window. And then he thought of the shadow behind Kaia and the bruise on her back with the unidentifiable residuals.
"You sure you want the truth?" Gojo asked.
"Yes," Kaito answered without hesitation.
Kaia took after her father. Her hair was a little redder than his, and she had her mother's eyes, but everything else she clearly inherited from him. Her petite frame, the fierceness in her eyes, the tanner complexion where if the sun hit just right, you could make out a few freckles on her face. The tough exterior.
"I saw a shadow behind her. It didn't have any cursed energy, and only me and Suguru Geto could see it for some reason, but then last night I saw she had a pretty nasty bruise in the middle of her back. There were residuals around it, but they weren't identifiable," he explained.
He realized that he probably should have left the bruise part out of it because suddenly Kaito looked like he wanted to jump across the table and strangle him to death.
"And why, pray tell, were you looking at my daughter's bare back last night?" he growled.
Gojo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He really should have expected that reaction given how Kaito looked at him all those months ago when he had to teleport all the way to their house and literally save Kaia's ass.
"Oh relax," he said right away. "Your daughter hates me. I can promise that she wouldn't do anything with me. I was just helping her out with training and she felt a pain in her back and asked me to take a look. You should be more concerned about the fact she got a bruise from someone's cursed energy and doesn't recall ever getting into a fight that would have caused it."
Kaito seemed to relax, but only slightly.
"That is cause for concern," he muttered.
"Yeah," Gojo agreed as he finished the rest of his chai. "Who would have it out for you guys if you don't mind me asking?"
Kaito laughed in spite of himself and shook his head. He suddenly looked very tired and much, much older.
"Who wouldn't? The higher-ups hate me. They think my leaving Okinawa started something on the island, though I have no idea what. They torment me with constant overseas missions, pulling me away from my family nonstop. They refuse to give Ren many assignments because they're upset that she didn't have a boy to carry on the Murakami name—even though they think my family is cursed. And they purposely send Kaia on missions I don't approve of. They sent her to Okinawa when you and your friend were there. Sent her to that awful place and I'd wager they'll send her there again just because they can."
"You think the higher-ups are doing this?" he asked.
"I don't know," Kaito said, voice sounding so defeated. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with the back of his thumb, a gesture he'd seen Kaia do on more than one occasion, and gave a heavy sigh that made his shoulders shudder. "I can't be everywhere at once, no matter how hard I try. I hate to ask this of you. You're still so young and have far too much responsibility on your shoulders. It isn't right, Satoru. They shouldn't have this pressure on you. I don't care how powerful you are. You're still just a boy."
Gojo swallowed back the dryness in his throat and fiddled with the empty cup. He didn't know what to say, but he felt validated. It didn't matter though. He was the chosen one. He would always have a heavy burden to bear.
"But if you could, if you could find some way to look out for my daughter—even just a little, I would be eternally grateful. She's strong, but she's so stubborn and hardheaded that she'll never ask for help. Please. I'm sorry to give you another burden," he said. He hung his head low, making it clear how serious this was to him.
Of course, Gojo would keep an eye out for Kaia. No one even had to ask him. He'd already spent the entire morning thinking about her.
"Yes, of course," he said.
He watched as Kaito's hands curled into tight fists.
"Thank you."
Kaito stood up to leave, yet before he could walk away Gojo interrupted him.
"Kaito, what happened in Okinawa? Why do you hate your family's ancestral home so much?" he asked.
He paused, lingering where he stood directly behind the chair he'd just occupied. He looked around them like he was nervous someone was listening and then leaned a little closer, keeping his voice low.
"It's an awful place, Satoru. That's all. It's a vile, disgusting, wretched place that does terrible things to people's minds. If I could, I would set the house and all the land on fire and watch it burn until not even ash remained."
He said nothing else, gave a slight bow of his head, and then disappeared into the crowded streets of Marrakesh.
Shoko had been working on healing the bruise on Kaia's back for at least fifteen minutes when she finally gave up with an exasperated sigh.
"What the hell is this? What is wrong with you? You're passing out in the shower, getting freaky bruises on you, and screaming in the middle of the night. Is there something going on that you need to tell me about?" Shoko asked, pouting her lips into a frown.
Kaia pulled her shirt back down and leaned against the wall Shoko's bed was pressed up against. She rubbed her forehead as Shoko moved to the window and lit a cigarette.
"I'm fine. Sorry about the screaming. I keep having weird dreams," she said casually as if she hadn't been haunted by these freakish dreams for half a year now.
"Mhm," Shoko hummed. "And suddenly you're hanging out with Satoru and he's walking you to your room late at night. Are you sure there's nothing you want to tell me?"
Kaia froze and her eyes immediately flashed to Shoko.
"Oh yeah. I heard him out in the hall last night," she started. She swiveled in the chair by the window and set her cigarette down, smushing the embers in the ashtray. "Kaia, I really don't think messing around with him is a good idea."
She shook her head, waving her hands towards Shoko as she did.
"No, no, no! It's not like that!"
"Yeah, okay. Look, I know he's a babe. I know he's charming and whatnot. And I love him like a brother. But shit, Kaia. It isn't worth it. He's going to break your heart and leave you crying alone in your bed at night. I've seen it before," she said.
Was this what Kaia sounded like when she told Maha over and over again that Riku was an idiot or that she didn't need to sleep with boys to get their attention? No. It couldn't be. Unlike Kaia, Maha actually was messing around with boys. Kaia on the other hand was just asking for Gojo to help fix what he screwed up in the first place.
"Hold on," Kaia said with a nervous laugh. "Sho, I swear I'm not doing anything with Gojo. This is all a big misunderstanding."
Shoko did not look impressed even in the slightest.
"That's exactly what Utahime said a few years ago."
Kaia stared, waiting for the punchline but it never came.
"Utahime and Gojo…" she said slowly.
"Why do you think she hates him so much? It's because he used her for a few weeks and then iced her out. She's never quite gotten over it," Shoko explained. "Utahime is one of my best friends and I know she wouldn't want me spreading that around, but I also know that she wouldn't want you to make the same mistake she did."
It made sense. Utahime really did seem to have it out for him when Shoko had her little party last term. She just assumed she hated him because Gojo was insufferable. But learning the truth? She felt a little queasy for some reason. She had no idea why though. It wasn't like she actually gave a shit about him. Yeah, he was nice to look at. And so what if they maybe shared a moment or whatever in his domain last night, but he was still a player and scumbag.
"Shoko, I really appreciate what you're saying. Truly. But nothing is going on with me and Gojo. I was with him last night because he was helping me out with an issue I was having with my cursed technique. And I'm glad you told me about him and Utahime. I think that's a really shitty thing to do," she said. She could feel her face contort into a sort of grimace and Shoko stilled, looking at her with what might have been sympathy.
"I'm sorry if that upset you. I just want you to be safe," Shoko said softly.
Kaia forced a smile and gave a light laugh.
"Why would I be upset? You know I hate him. Anyway, thanks for trying to heal my bruise. I got no clue where it came from," she said, stretching her hands high above her head until her back gave a satisfying crack.
Shoko smiled sadly at her.
"No problem. Oh and I'm going on a mission in a few days, so I won't be here. You gonna be okay by yourself for a few nights?"
"Sho, I sleep alone every night," Kaia said with an arched brow.
"I know but you keep having those nightmares."
"Oh, it'll be fine. I'm gonna go rest up. I'm beat from today's mission. See you later," Kaia said. She left her friend's room and went across the hall to her own and collapsed on the bed.
She dreamt of nothing. No ancestral homes. No dead grandfathers. No lullabies.
It was incredible.
It'd been three days since Kaia's mission with Mei Mei and the finalized report had only come in an hour ago. She laid on her bed late at night, holding the report by the lamp on her nightstand, and scanned the paper.
'Ultimately, the Grade 1 cursed spirit was exorcised by Grade 3 jujutsu sorcerer Kaia Murakami through the utilization of her cursed fire technique.'
A grin broke across her face and she squealed to herself, practically jumping up and down on her mattress. She needed to tell her parents. They'd be so proud! She couldn't even imagine what her mother would say. Maybe she'd actually get a compliment for once in her life. And her father! Her dad would be so proud of her progress.
She grabbed her cell phone, ready to call her parents but as soon as she clicked through the contacts, her phone lit up and started buzzing.
INCOMING CALL – SATORU GOJO
She stared at the name wordlessly. In all the chaos of the last few days, she'd forgotten he had her number now. Her thumb hovered over the reject button. What the hell could he possibly want? Phone sex? She wasn't Utahime and she wasn't some stupid lovestruck schoolgirl. His dumb charms wouldn't work on her. Hell no. Especially not after she talked to Shoko.
She changed her mind about rejecting the call though. She would answer the phone with no problems. But she would immediately tell him to fuck off, to delete her number, and then she would hang up and call her parents and tell them the good news.
She hit the accept button and put the phone to ear, ready to tell him off, but he immediately interrupted her before she could even begin.
"You exorcised a first-grade curse and didn't think to tell me? You wound me, Murakami. I thought we were closer than that."
Well. She definitely hadn't been expecting that.
"How did you get the report? You weren't on that mission," she blurted.
"I'm a special grade, Bunny. I can get all the reports if I want," he said. And oh, she could just hear the smile in his voice. She despised the way her stomach fluttered at that stupid fucking nickname.
"Why would I tell you about that? And what do you want?" she snapped.
"I'm just calling to check on you," he said. His voice softened and the cockiness in his tone evaporated. She couldn't help but remember the other night, the way he spoke to her all soft and sweet, and the way he held her against his strong chest when she'd come down from her technique.
"Well don't. I'm fine," she said a little too quickly.
"…Did I do something wrong? Why are you so mad all of the sudden?"
She raked her hands over her face. God, why was she letting him get to her? She didn't want him to sound so disappointed. She didn't want him to feel bad.
"I'm not mad," she lied.
"You are. I thought we agreed that you'd keep me in the know with everything. You know, since there's been weird shit happening around you," he said. He sounded genuinely confused. She wondered what that looked like on Satoru Gojo. Did he nervously wring his hands? Did he arch his brows and tilt his head to the side?
"Okay, well it's fine. Nothing weird is going on. And why are you calling me so late? It's eleven at night," she said, desperately trying to cling to her fleeting anger so she wouldn't soften on him all of the sudden.
"It's only 3:00pm here and I had some spare time," he said, making a sound that Kaia thought was a sigh. "Look, if you want to be pissed at me for something, that's fine. But what the hell are you so ticked off about?"
So he wasn't calling her in the late hours of the evening for a suggestive phone call. He genuinely was just checking on her.
She was an idiot.
"Oh…" she mumbled.
"Someone's been whispering in your ear. Probably telling you what an awful scumbag I am," he hummed. The sarcasm in his voice was almost palpable.
"You're not entirely off the mark," she mumbled to herself. She brought her legs up underneath her and picked at the corner of her nails.
"Who was it? Ieiri?" he asked.
"Why does it matter who it was?" she asked back. She looked at the window and watched the moon shining high above the trees. She wondered what Gojo's view was. Maybe he was in a hotel or at a restaurant. She wondered if it was sunny wherever he was.
"Because what you were told depends on who talked to you. If it was Ieiri, my guess is that she told you I'm the playboy who broke Utahime's heart."
Kaia bit down on the back of her bottom lip to hold in the impressed laugh that was bubbling at the back of her lungs.
"Impressive. Almost like you were there for that conversation," she said.
He let out a breathy laugh, "she always brings that up."
"Did you do it? Did you break Utahime's heart?" she pressed.
He hesitated.
"I don't know if I broke her heart, but I did do a pretty shitty thing to her. Not one of my finer moments," he admitted.
Kaia didn't know what to make of that information. She felt oddly disappointed, yet at the same time, a little impressed that he owned up to it.
"What was the shitty thing you did?"
"You really wanna know?"
"That's why I asked."
"Ah." He cleared his throat. "I pursued her for a little bit. Finally got her to fall into bed with me—became sort of a regular thing with us. And then uh. I kinda just stopped and never gave her a reason why. And when she asked for one, I was a jackass."
"Wow," was all Kaia could say.
"Never said I was proud of it," he said.
"Why'd you stop?" she asked. She didn't have a reason for wanting to know more. She just knew that she liked talking to Gojo when he was preening and showing off and when he was acting like an actual human being.
"Eh, I don't know. Just wasn't into it anymore."
"So you got bored," she said under her breath. She lied down on her bed and stared at the ceiling.
"I don't know. Maybe. Why are you so interested?"
Kaia yawned and hugged her blanket to her chest.
"I just don't get it. Why do girls fall for asshole guys? Maha does it all the time, thinks that she has to put out to get a guy to actually like her, and then what happens? She ends up with a loser who uses her as a human shield and then ices her out. Then there's Utahime? She's pretty and she's smart and I don't care how hot you are. You're not hot enough to totally screw a girl like her over. I just don't understand it," she ranted.
It was only after she concluded her little mini rant did it dawn on her that she probably sounded pathetic to him. She mentally cursed herself and hid her face in her pillow.
"You think I'm hot?" he asked, once again, smile painfully obvious in his voice.
"Seriously? That's what you heard? Out of that whole rant?"
"Nah, I also heard you say in not so many words that you're still a virgin."
She thanked whatever higher power there was for phones and long-distance phone calls because the blood rushed to her face in a way she couldn't even begin to describe.
"Bite me, Gojo," she said weakly, still too embarrassed to come up with a decent comeback.
"Say the word and I'll do more than that," he teased in a low voice.
Her stomach did more than flutter. Heat pooled low in her abdomen and the rest of her body warmed with her face.
"You're disgusting," she snapped, burying her face deeper into her pillow, phone still pressed against her ear.
He laughed and for whatever reason, it only fanned the heat quickly spreading through her body.
"And yet you're still talking to me," he drawled.
Indeed she was.
"Not anymore. Goodnight, Gojo," she said.
"Sweet dreams, Bunny."
Kaia did not have sweet dreams.
She woke up after having a nightmare where the unidentifiable old woman had been singing her a lullaby as she stared at her own corpse with that awful gash across her throat. She yelped and thrashed around in bed, only to wake up in a dark room with fractured moonlight seeping in through the window. She struggled to catch her breath and leaned her elbows on her propped up knees, staring at her curse across the small room.
"Go to sleep you little babe. Go to sleep you little babe. You and me and the devil makes three. Don't need no other lovin' baby."
Her eyes doubled in size and she looked around the room.
"Go to sleep you little babe. Go to sleep you little babe. Come lay your bones on the alabaster stones and be my ever lovin' baby."
Nope.
No. No. A thousand times no.
Kaia didn't care that she couldn't see anyone in her room. Didn't care that she couldn't feel anyone's cursed energy. She could hear an old woman singing, she knew damn well that it wasn't her imagination, and she knew she did not want to stick around to get her throat slashed because she was too stubborn to leave.
She jumped out of bed, not even bothering to put on a pair of pants, and ran to Shoko's room.
"Sho!" she hissed, banging on the wooden door like a madman. "Let me in!"
No answer.
That's when it dawned on Kaia that there was no answer because Shoko wasn't there. She was away on a mission.
"Go to sleep you little babe."
Every muscle in Kaia's body went still. The old woman's gravelly voice sounded like was right behind her. She whipped around, tasting flames on the tip of her tongue, and pressed her back flat against Shoko's door.
Nothing. She was alone in the dark hall. No woman. No cursed energy. Nothing.
"Go to sleep you little babe."
Oh fuck that.
Kaia didn't care. She had one thought and that was to get the hell away from whatever was singing. She sprinted down the hallway in her pajamas, legs carrying her as fast as humanly possible. She didn't even care that she was only in a pair of underwear and an oversized t-shirt. She just needed to get away.
Her legs carried her to her location before her mind caught up and realized where she was.
She imagined the woman's voice and all sense of decency went right out the window.
She frantically knocked, taking zero time to pause and give the person on the other side a chance to wake up. She just knocked and knocked and knocked—
The door swung open revealing a half asleep Nanami, wearing only a pair of sweatpants and no shirt.
"Kaia?"
She shouldered past him and slammed the door shut, walking deep into his room until she leaned against the window furthest from the door. Her heart thudded rapidly in her chest and she took in heavy breaths, hands trembling.
"What's going on?" Nanami asked, voice still thick with sleep.
"You might want to move away from the door before my curse comes through it," she said quickly.
Despite the darkness, she could still make him out thanks to the full moon and the fact his window wasn't obstructed by trees like hers. In fact, it pointed right out to the courtyard and provided ample light for her to see his broad frame step away from the door the same moment her curse walked through it.
"Kaia, what's wrong?" he asked, looking directly at her from only a few strides away.
"I'm going to sound insane but I'm not. I swear to God, Nanami. I am not crazy!" she unintentionally shouted.
"Shh," he said gently, immediately moving to stand beside her and lean against the window as well. "Ijichi's across the hall and he's a light sleeper."
Right. The last thing she needed was detention for sneaking into the boys' dorm late at night.
"I heard it. The woman singing from my dreams. I woke up and heard her," she insisted. "I wasn't still dreaming and I didn't imagine it. It was real."
He looked at her quietly, not saying much. He probably thought she was losing her mind like every Murakami eventually did. He probably thought she was a complete and total basket case.
"It's okay. I believe you," he said.
She breathed a sigh of relief and buried her face in her still shaking hands.
"Can I please exorcise your curse? She's freaking me out. I don't like how she's just… Staring," Nanami mumbled.
Kaia couldn't help but laugh despite the hot tears forming in her eyes.
"Go ahead. Shouldn't take too much effort. She's pretty weak," Kaia said with a sniffle.
She wiped her eyes before any tears could fall and watched as Nanami swung his blunt blade and her curse evaporated into thin air. Once she was gone, he sat on the edge of his bed and nodded at her to come over.
Kaia sat beside him and nervously twisted her hair around her index finger. It may have been dark, but Kaia could clearly see how clean Nanami's room was. Unlike hers, which had some articles of clothing thrown about, his was spotless. Nothing was out of place. Not even his sheets were a mess despite having been asleep. Instead, his blankets were almost neatly pushed to the side from when he'd gotten out of bed.
"Sorry I woke you up. I went to Shoko first but she's on a mission and I panicked."
"That's all right." His voice was still hoarse from sleep. "You can stay here. Take the bed and I'll sleep on the floor."
Kaia's eyes flickered to the hardwood floor and she frowned.
"No, that's okay. Just give me a pillow and maybe some pants and I'll take the floor," she said as she stood up.
Right on cue, Nanami's eyes flickered to her bare legs.
"You seriously came running over here in just your underwear?" he deadpanned.
"I told you I panicked."
He laughed softly and shook his head, standing up from the bed and crossing his arms. He gestured to the bed and said a bored, "get your skinny ass in the bed."
"Uh, rude. My ass is firm. Not skinny," she said. She didn't argue though as she crawled into the double bed. She slipped under the covers, sheets still warm, and pressed her back against the wall as Nanami grabbed one of the pillows and went to toss it on the floor.
"Nanami, just get in the bed. It's big enough for two and we can put a wall of pillows between us if you want," she said as a wave of guilt washed over her. She was the one imposing here. She was the one who came barging into his room at an ungodly hour. She couldn't let him sleep on an awful hardwood floor.
"You sure?" he asked tiredly.
"I mean, unless you're planning on doing something gross, which I doubt you are, then yes. I'm sure."
He shrugged and tossed his pillow back on the bed and laid down on top of the covers instead of crawling underneath them as she had. He lied on his back and she turned on her side so she faced the wall, already feeling better at having another person with her in case that awful singing came back.
"Thanks, Nanami," she said quietly, eyelids already getting heavy.
"Anytime."
Author's note
Drop a review with some feedback if you're able! As always, see y'all next week(: