Chapter Four.
The Circus.
Staring at the ceiling above her, Asami tries her best to remember what happened in the forest, still confused as to what in the hell had exactly happened. It was currently the morning after everything and Yuuji along with Satoru, could be heard through the walls of her room making breakfast in the kitchen. Satoru had ultimately slept on the couch with the excuse that he was tired and would be lazy to train Yuuji the next day if he went back home.
But Asami knew the truth, he was just simply waiting for the right moment to ambush her and ask her about what happened. For Gojou Satoru felt guilty.
After coming back to Asami's, he couldn't help but indeed regret ever taking her. He just honestly didn't think she was that drunk, in fact he fully believed her when she said she was at a scale of 2. And now she was avoiding him like the plague. Running a hand through his hair in frustration, Satoru fixes his sunglasses.
"That's one big meatball," Satoru looks at the meatball in Yuuji's hands.
Yuuji becomes flustered, "It's for Asami-sensei," he says, "A way to cheer her up, you know?"
The thoughtfulness of his student brings a small smile to Satoru's face, "Make sure you don't add too many pieces of carrots, she won't eat it if there is," Satoru adds, recalling how picky Asami could be.
Yuuji obediently nods, removing some of the pieces of carrots he had added in.
Sighing, Satoru makes his way to Asami's bedroom door, deciding he wouldn't go by the invasive route of just teleporting inside. "Boundaries," he recalls Asami terribly long scoldings whenever he would randomly pop up in her apartment.
Knock. Knock.
"Asamiii."
Silence.
"Asamiii."
Silence once again.
"Asamiii."
Running out of patience, Satoru slowly cracks open the door, peeking his head inside only to find Asami asleep. Chuckling to himself, he walks over to her to fix her blanket which was currently draping down the bed.
Softly patting her hair, he remembers the time where she used to have strawberry red hair rather than crimson red. Honestly, he wasn't sure which one he preferred, both colors completely emphasizing her natural beauty.
A frown appears on his face once he notices her tear stained cheeks. She must've cried herself back to sleep.
"You'll be okay Asami, I promise," he whispers, getting up from the corner of her bed and making his way out.
"Asami-sensei?" Yuuji is surprised to see Asami in the kitchen eating from a big tub of ice cream, for today was Monday and she should've been at the school teaching the health class aka Nobara and Megumi.
She stops eating from the tub of ice cream, now directing her attention to him.
"I-If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?" he awkwardly chuckles, embarrassed about being seen in his teddy bear pajamas.
"Sat—I mean Gojou, told me I had the day off. Said he'd fill in for me," she mumbles, resuming taking a bite out of her ice cream, "So it looks like I'm with you," she monotonously states, cheeks still full of vanilla ice cream, "Is there anything you feel like doing?" she asks with a mouthful of her dessert.
And almost immediately, Yuuji's eyes light up, "Can we go to Tokyo for the day?" he enthusiastically asks, not having gotten the opportunity to explore around considering everything that had happened.
"No," Asami impassively says, and Yuuji's face immediately falls.
"B-b-but why not?" he whines like a child.
She sighs, now feeling bad, "Fine," she says, and his face becomes one of excitement again, "But only for a bit!" she scolds him, going to her room to get ready, thinking that maybe it'd be best to get some fresh air for herself.
"Asami-senseiiii," Yuuji whines, the shopping bags he was carrying now causing him to lose his balance. This was NOT the idea he had in mind when he said he wanted to see Tokyo.
"Hey, don't complain," Asami says, "Acting as if half of those clothes aren't yours and weren't bought by me," she reminds him and to that he stays silent, purposely forgetting the part where she offered to pay for just one of his things and he ended up throwing several things to the cashier register at the very last second before paying, thus forcing Asami to pay for a several number of his things.
"But they're getting heavy now," he cries, wanting nothing more than to drop them.
Rolling her eyes, she puts her hand out, "Well what are you waiting for? Hand some of them to me," she mutters, the relationship between the two resembling one of an older sister and a younger brother, "Are you hungry?" she asks, and Yuuji is quick to nod.
"Fine, come on. I know a nice place around here," and with that Yuuji follows her, excited to see more of Tokyo.
"Nice to know you're enjoying the food," Asami mumbles, watching Yuuji as he slurped the ramen noodles out of his bowl as if there was no tomorrow.
"This is really good," Yuuji compliments his dish with a mouthful of noodles.
"Tickets! Tickets! Get your tickets here!" a middle aged man yells outside the restaurant Asami and Yuuji were eating, selling tickets for what seemed to be for a circus show. Yuuji's eyes immediately light up, recalling how Gojou-sensei said that Asami once was a part of a circus. Maybe he can finally get one of his questions answered!
"Look, tickets for a circus show!" Yuuji states the obvious, preparing to ask his question, "So Asami-sensei, I heard you used—" But before he can even get the question out, Asami was already making her way outside, having paid for the food already.
Yuuji, who quickly throws the trash away, follows closely behind as she makes her way to the ticket booth, "We're going to a circus show tonight," she informs Yuuji, quickly buying the two tickets before the show is sold out. Yuuji notices the way Asami's eyes seem to glimmer at the thought, the circus presumably holding a special place in her heart. Excited himself, Yuuji decides to postpone his questions for later, for now looking forward to the show.
"Wooaaah!" Yuuji watches the trapeze act perform, in complete awe of the two performers. He was in such awe that he hadn't even eaten out of the plastic popcorn bucket he bought since they'd started.
"Aren't they cool?" Asami surprisingly asks him, a small smile on her face.
Yuuji excitedly nods his head, ready to see more, "I don't know how they do it, aren't they scared of you know falling?"
Asami shakes her head, a faint laugh coming out, "It's the opposite actually. Being up there and performing has this sense of freedom, as if you're truly flying. It's a feeling unlike any other, you feel power, like you're in control, and to put it simple … special. "
Yuuji continues to look at the performers in amazement, Asami's words making the performance even greater than it already was, "S-So they're not afraid of dying?"
And it seemed that the question struck a chord for Asami because soon she was wiping a tear off of her face. Yuuji, noticing her reaction, is immediately about to begin apologizing, the question not meant to have any ill intent behind it. But before he could, Asami already had a close-eyed smile on her face, looking at Yuuji with a sense of happiness.
"No, they're aren't," she laughs, sniffling her tears away despite them spewing out of her eyes, "Sorry, you must be thinking that I'm such a weird person. It's just watching them perform reminds me of a certain time," is all she simply says.
Yuuji nods his head no, a smile now on his face, "Asami-sensei, I think you're an amazing person," he says, and the two return their attention back to the show, coming to a silent understanding of another.
April 2005.
"Asami, you're up next soon," Asami's mother, Misaki, says to her 15 year old daughter, who for some odd reason had a fearful look on her face, "Something wrong?"
"Mom…" Asami pauses, contemplating whether to continue.
"Come on, spit it out Asami," her mother frowns, "We don't have time to—"
"I'm seeing them again."
Misaki stares at her daughter in silence, processing what she had just said. Sighing, she tries her best to be compassionate, but finding it hard to do so.
For several years now, her daughter would claim to see tiny little monsters around her who would occasionally be grabbing onto people or lingering in the shadows. It seemed they only "appeared" whenever they were performing in big cities such as Tokyo, but would "disappear" whenever they were in small rural towns.
Personally, they had been to several doctors with each and every one coming to the conclusion that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Asami, the only thing she was ever adamant about being that these monsters existed.
"Asami, you're just nervous that's all," her mother pats her shoulders, trying her best to reassure her, "I promise you it's just pre-show nerves," she adds.
Asami shakes her head, "N-No," she stutters, "T-This time it's d-different," she feels tears begin to well up, genuine fear inside of her.
Misaka runs a hand through her daughter's strawberry-red hair, helping her braid the lower ends of it, "Asami you've got this," she comfortingly whispers into her ear, "Doesn't she Tsuyoshi?" Misaka turns to her husband, who had just walked into the family's dressing room.
Tsuyoshi smiles, wrapping his arm around his daughter, "Of course she does, she's the greatest acrobat we have here," he compliments his daughter, successfully bringing a small smile to her face, "Tokyo will be amazed at what they see," he says, referring to the audience.
"Okay, so cheer up!" Misaka enthusiastically shakes her daughter's shoulders, "Shake those nerves off and show em what you're made of!"
Asami fakes a grin, only praying to herself that things would turn out alright.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages...what you are all about to see defies the laws of physics!" Masamichi Yaga watches the circus ringmaster begin to announce the next performer, currently here on a date with his long time girlfriend.
"Ah I wonder who it could be," she whispers beside him, having enjoyed the show so far. Masamichi on the other hand was simply watching with careful eyes, as he had spotted (what seemed to be) a harmless curse up above where the corners of the tent meet. Rather than tell his girlfriend, he kept it to himself, knowing that she didn't really like hearing about these kinds of things, willfully choosing to live in ignorance.
"You'll see her twist and turn all day today, and to add to it all, she's got the face of a doll, give a warm welcome for little miss Asami!"
The spotlight moves away from the ringmaster to a young teenage girl entering the circus ring, walking over to her aerial hoop. But it's something that she does before she gets on the hoop that catches the attention of Masamichi… she looks up. Almost as if able to see the curse herself.
With a hesitant look on her face, she begins her performance, the aerial hoop now rapidly swinging around in the air. From hanging on one foot to doing the splits, the sound of multiple "Oooh" and "Aah's" fill the air, as the crowd looks at the girl in amazement. She was doing things they'd never seen before in their life.
"S-She's amazing!" his girlfriend stutters out, fascinated by how someone could look so graceful while doing the things that she was doing. Masamichi attempts to mumble something in return, but by now his focus was on the curse who also seemed just as fascinated with the performance as the rest of the crowd, now slowly (and to mention creepily) making its way down the curtain, as if wanting a closer look.
By then Masamichi was able to confirm that the teenage girl named Asami was able to see it, for her smiling face was now beginning to falter.
"M-Mom?" Asami whispers to herself, still in the middle of performing. She glances down to the entrance of the dressing room, her parents standing and watching her from there just like they always did. The curse was getting nearer and nearer with every loop around the ring she made, and for some reason the swinging speed of her aerial hoop was faster than ever before. She could feel herself becoming dizzy, something that almost never happened.
It seemed that her parents had also noticed her sudden fear, but still mistaking it as stage fright, they began to make motions with their hands as if to continue doing more moves.
Feeling her breathing becoming more rapid, she tries to follow their directions, doing a one leg hox hang on the hoop, "S-Stay away," she tries to command at the curse who was now in an empty seat in the crowd, acting like a lion waiting to pounce on its prey, "I-I don't want to die," Asami feels tears begin to well up, knowing that the dark chilling feeling creeping down her neck was death waiting to claim her.
"I don't want to die," she repeats to herself, no longer feeling free like she always did when performing but instead powerless, suffocating with every breath she took. It was going to jump at her any second now, it was going to kill her. And no one was going to help her.
And so with her final lap around the dirt circle, everything had seemed to happen so quick. From the curse jumping to the girl, to the girl throwing herself off the hoop. The haunting words of "Mom! Dad!" being screamed were the last things heard from her before she crashed onto the metal stands across from her.
The crowd gasps, the bloody sight of the unconscious girl something most definitely gruesome. A frantic commotion is caused by the shocking accident, and almost immediately the circus staff begins to lead people out, clearing the path to her so that the medics could get to her more easily when they arrived.
Using the distraction, Masamichi runs out of his seat to go and exorcise the curse, while his girlfriend only watches the depressing scene in front of her, the girl's parents crying while holding their daughter in their arms, waiting for medical help.
"Asami, stay with us baby," her mother cries, finding it hard to keep calm while holding her only childs bloody face in her hands, shaking her limp body in fear that she wasn't breathing. It's only then that she notices the deep gash behind her neck, quickly covering it with pressure by using her hand.
Asami's face for the most part looked almost completely unrecognizable, the amount of blood oozing off the cuts in her face causing chills to go down her parents' spine, their hands shaky because of what they were looking at.
"Mom," Asami manages to whisper out, her breathing now faint and slow, "I-I don't want to die, I'm scared," her voice cracks, salty tears mixing with the crimson colored blood dripping down her face.
"You're not baby," Misaki cries, "You're going to be just fine," she reassures, trying her best to believe her own words, "I promise," she whispers into her daughter's ear, her promise being the last thing Asami heard before passing out.
Weeks Later.
"Sir, I think you're mistaken," Asami hears her mother talk to someone outside of her hospital room as she barely begins to wake up from her nap, the tone of her mother's voice being hostile. Because she was still in a groggy state the stranger's response comes out sounding muffled.
"My daughter is in recovery right now, I don't think she'd like to be recruited for some religious school right now," her father says.
The stranger's voice finally becomes clearer now that Asami was fully awake, "Please Mr and Mrs…"
"Okada," her mother completes for the stranger.
"Just allow me to explain to her what the school is, and if she says no then I will completely understand and leave all of you be," the gruffled voice promises.
Reluctantly the door opens and Asami's parents enter the room with an intimidating man behind them who seemed to be holding flowers and a blue teddy bear.
Asami's mother is the first to speak, "Asami, this man, his name is Masamichi Yaga. He wants to recruit you to his school, says he might be able to help you with the … things… you see. Says that the religion they practice can," she gulps, "cure you," she looks down in sadness, desperate to have her daughter ..."cured". Because after hearing her daughter say that the reason she fell off the hoop and almost lost her life was because of these so called monsters she saw, Misaki knew that this problem of Asami's had become much too serious to be ignored. Grabbing her daughter's arm, she softly rubs it, "We'll be right outside if you need anything, okay?"
Asami silently nods, watching her parents go back outside, thus leaving her and the intimidating man by themselves.
Masamichi stares at the injured girl in silence.
Asami currently had a broken leg along with a bruised face, a cast around her nose signalling that she had to get a rhinoplasty because of a broken nose. Luckily enough time had passed that she no longer had to wear her neck brace, but because of the deep gash the collision had caused, she now permanently had a scar on the back of her neck that would never fully recover. If grabbed or touched hard enough, it would send an excruciating jolting pain down her body.
Masamichi sits down on the guest chair, positioning it in a way so that could directly face her, "Asami right?" he asks but the teenage girl only stares at him in silence, too timid to say anything.
He sighs, "I heard your parents mention that you've been seeing monsters since you were around eight or ten…" he pauses, "When in reality you've probably been seeing them since you were 4 to 6. But since you're a part of a travelling circus they'd come and go depending on where you were," he says, and Asami's eyes widen, everything he was saying being completely true, "I don't blame you for keeping silent kid, the things you see are pretty scary."
"C-Can you see them?" Asami hesitantly asks.
Masamichi nods, "All my life kid. It's why I work for a school that helps teach people how to get rid of them," and at the mention of Jujutsu High, Asami's ears begin to perk up, interested in what he had to say, "What you see are called cursed spirits."
"C-Cursed spirits?"
"Curses for short," he states, "They're a byproduct of the negative emotions such as anger and sadness that flow out of humans. It builds like sediment in a sense, until finally a cursed spirit is born. You'll usually find them in places such as hospitals and schools," Asami nods her head, understanding the logic as to why they'd be more frequent there, for those were places where people usually received bad news and memories.
"But then why was that," she pauses, struggling to say the new terminology, "curse … at the circus? The circus is a place of happiness…"
"Curses like to linger in their place of origin, since your circus group sets their camp from place to place, you all happened to accidentally place your camp in the curses so called home. Not only that but considering how fascinated the curse seemed to appear at the sight of you, it means you hold strong cursed energy, which can also mean that you must have a strong cursed technique."
Asami remains silent for a moment, processing everything she'd just been told, "H-How do I know you're not lying?"
And as if anticipating the question, Masamichi holds up the cute green teddy bear he had brought, something Asami assumed was a "feel better" gift. That was of course until it started moving!
"Huh?" Asami's eyes widen as the bear begins to do cute dances, even waving hi to her.
"My cursed technique allows me to control inanimate objects, almost like a puppet master. I tend to make them myself, unintentionally as cute things such as this. They're called cursed corpses and they're infused with my curse."
"Cursed technique? Cursed Corpses?"
"They're terms you'll come to learn and know once you enroll in the school. That is of course assuming you want to be enrolled?"
Asami remains silent, honestly unsure of the answer herself.
"So this school of yours…" she hesitates, "it'll teach me about this world you're in and how to…"
"Exorcise."
"Exorcise curses?"
He nods his head.
"But that means I'll have to leave the circus? I'll have to leave my parents…"
He nods his head again, "We have dorms in the school for you to live in, and I'm sure your only other first-year female classmate would be more than happy to have a next door neighbor…"
'Only?!' she thinks to herself, "Wait just how many students attend the school?" she immediately asks.
"In your year? Three," he bluntly states, "Two boys, one girl."
Asami's mouth gapes in shock, "W-Why so little?"
"Because kid, this ability of ours isn't some magical blessing if you can't tell, and I guess you can consider us a rare kind. What we'll train you to become is called a jujutsu sorcerer, and the world of jujutsu is a long road of death, I'll tell you that much. It's an unpleasant job, and you have to be motivated and also a little crazy," he explains, "Which brings me to the question … even if you do want to enroll? Why should I even let you? For all I know you could use what we teach you to wreak havoc on the world."
'What the?! This guy came to recruit me! Why am I being interviewed?!' Asami furrows her eyebrows defensively, "B-Because!" she hesitates to think of an answer, "I don't want to be haunted by these so called curses anymore!"
He disappointingly shakes his head, "That's not good enough kid," he says, preparing to get up and leave.
"Wait!" she shouts, now leaning forward from her bed, "Because I used to be unafraid of death, or at least…" she lowers her voice, recalling the fear she felt when she saw the curse leap at her, "I thought I was. But I had that taken away from me, and I want it back," she determinedly says, glaring at the man in front of her, "And if I have to learn how to exorcise those wretched things you call curses, then so be it. Because when I die I refuse to be scared, in fact I'll do it with a smile on my face and have absolutely no regrets!"
A small smile appears on Masamichi's face, as he pulls out a business card from his pocket, handing it over to the young lady, "Welcome to Jujutsu High kid. Call the number and they'll help you make all the arrangements, I'll see you in a couple of days," and with that he leaves, curious to see what this kid was made of.
Present Day.
Flipping through her old album book, Asami views the pictures of her days in the circus with a smile on her face. Today's trip to the circus resurfacing memories she often found herself forgetting of.
Yuuji, who was currently asleep, also seemed to be satisfied with today's trip as he kept rambling about the different things he saw and if it was possible to learn some of the moves he'd seen Asami do in her spar with Satoru. And though it'd take some practice, she was sure he could learn a thing or two from her.
"Going down memory lane," a voice from behind says, causing Asami to jump in shock.
Immediately she groans once she realizes who it was, "Satoru," she says his name, "What did I tell you about respecting boundaries," she scolds him as he makes his way to sit next to her, surprisingly without his sunglasses on.
He shrugs, "I'm impatient when it comes to waiting for you to open the door," he says, quickly changing topics, "Look at your nose!" he laughs, pointing at the picture of Asami before her accident. He then follows up the action with booping her current nose.
She scrunches it as a result, "I actually prefer my old one," she mumbles, "made me more unique."
He nods, "You still are," he says, a smile on his face, "Haha I remember when we first met, how you walked out the train station with that huge nose cast on your face," he begins to laugh out loud.
"Yeah, and I also remember how you laughed in my face for it!"
"It was just some playful teasing Asami. I was just flustered that our new classmate was so … pretty, " he struggles to hide his laugh causing Asami to hit his shoulder in retaliation, recalling the memory as if it was only yesterday.
May 2005.
"She's late," Masamichi huffs, as the time Asami should've been here was 2:00PM. It was currently 2:08.
"Sensei, she's only 8 minutes late," a young Gojou Satoru laughs, his sensei's annoyed face being one that would always make him laugh.
"Still late nonetheless," Masamichi counters back, eyes scanning the busy train station in hopes of landing his eyes on his new —
"There she is," he announces, pointing at the red headed girl who currently had her back faced to them as she was saying goodbye to her parents, her small bag of luggage covering her pink leg cast.
"Oh great we have a mommy and daddy's girl on our hands," Satoru complains, watching the scene from afar, "almost reminds me of someone," he sends a look to Geto Suguru, his only other first-year male classmate.
Suguru sends him a glare, "Shut it Satoru," he harshly mumbles, causing Satoru to only laugh, Ieiri Shoko already preparing her escape. Shaking off Satoru's comment, Suguru smiles at the scene, "I think it's nice," he says, "Means she won't have daddy issues like someone I know," Suguru is unable to stop himself from getting his own jab in, as it was now Satoru's turn to glare at him.
Meanwhile, across the train station, two parents are giving their heartfelt goodbye to their child.
"Remember if you need anything, you call us! And the moment you even feel the slightest bit of discomfort or feel like just going home, you tell us!" Asami's dad reminds her for what was probably the 20th time today.
"Dad, I know," Asami laughs, endeared by her parents' behavior, "Don't worry I'll be fine," she reassures them.
"Now boarding for Tokyo to Okayama," the announcer says through the speaker, a sign that Asami's parents needed to get going.
Misaki wipes her remaining tears, preparing her final goodbye to her daughter, "You come back to us alive and healthy, you hear me?" she sniffles, "No going out late or doing things you shouldn't do," she firmly states, trying her best to keep her composure.
"And no boys either!" her dad adds in for fun, but Asami could hear the serious undertone of it, only causing her to roll her eyes.
"Dadddd," she complains, and her parents both laugh.
"I'm serious Asami, alive and healthy," Misaki reminds her daughter, the girl only nodding, "You promise?"
Asami laughs, "I promise mom, now go, or else you'll miss your train," she urges her parents to get going, and soon enough they do, leaving Asami by herself.
"Oh we're about to get a face reveal!" the three students eagerly begin to stare at the girl, wondering what she could possibly look like, Masamichi having forgotten to mention the young woman's injuries.
"She's inj—" but before Masamichi could even say it, Satoru was already struggling to hold in a laugh while Suguru and Shoko both had what you could call…. shocked …. expressions on their faces.
Not only was their classmate temporarily crippled from the leg, but had one hell of a nose job because the swollenness of her under eyes was definitely… a head turner to say the least.
"Satoru," Suguru subtly kicks his leg, as if warning him not to laugh in her face.
"Hello, you must be Asami," Shoko is the first to greet the girl, offering her hand.
"Ieiri Shoko, right?" Asami shyly says, and Shoko raises a brow as to how the girl knew her name, "The assistant director of the school sent me an email with your guys' names…"
They all make an "Ohh" face, "You can just call me Shoko," her new classmate says and Asami nods.
Suguru is the next to introduce himself, "Geto Suguru, but you can just call me Suguru," the boy with the top knot hairstyle says, also politely shaking Asami's hand and even offering to take the luggage off of her hands for her.
And then there was Satoru. Rude old Satoru.
Still struggling to hide his laugh, he doesn't even offer his hand to Asami. Suguru kicks his leg again, but this time it only caused his laughter to be let out, Asami's face falling in both confusion and sadness, for she knew the reason why he was laughing.
"The name's Gojou Satoru," he finally says, and Asami remembers the name in the email she read, unaware of its importance in the jujutsu world. Furrowing her brows, her sad expression becomes one of a glare, not a fan of being laughed at. In fact, she was used to being applauded and cheered on.
Deciding to be the bigger person, she offers her hand, "Nice to meet you Gojou-san," she says with a bit of a spite, establishing the relationship between the two.
He scoffs, shaking her hand, "What was it again? Asami …."
"Okada," Asami clenches her jaw, trying her best to maintain her composure.
"Well Asami," he says without the permission of using no honorifics, only causing cross-popping veins to appear on her forehead, "If you're as weak as you look," he chuckles, "I don't see us getting along so well."
And before Asami could even get a word in, Masamichi was already interrupting the two, Suguru now understanding why Shoko liked to run away whenever he and Satoru would get into it.
"Come on you four, we have to give Asami a tour of Tokyo," he reminds them, and the established trio give a knowing look to one another, a smirk on Gojou's face as he knew he was about to watch some free entertainment.
Present Day.
Punching his shoulder once again, Asami scowls at the man besides her, "You were such an asshole."
"If it makes you feel any better, I was just as rude when I met the other two," he laughs, and Asami flashes him the middle finger, "Just that your arrival was funnier than the rest."
"Hmph," Asami dramatically crosses her arms and refuses to look at the man she calls her ex.
"Oh come on," Satoru repeatedly pokes her shoulder, "Don't be like that," he chuckles, tempted to tackle her and nuzzle his head into the crook of her neck, "Asamiiiiiiiii," he sings her name, "or let me add the honorific you once wanted me to use so bad… Asamiiiii-chaaaannn," he laughs once again, Asami's face now completely red.
"You're not funny Gojou-san," and immediately Satoru's laughter stops, a frown quickly replacing the smile on his face. Asami lets out a small satisfied "hmph, serves you right."
And as tempted as he was to punishingly kiss her, Satoru had to restrain himself, as he was waiting for the right moment to do it. That and he wanted to get her to soberingly confess first for the sake of his own ego, and especially for the jokes he'd get to make afterwards. Though Gojou Satoru was often an impatient man, for this he'd be more than willing to wait.
"Satoru? Hello?" Asami's voice causes Satoru to bring himself back to reality.
"What happened?" he innocently asks, unaware of the question she had been asking prior to him zoning out in his own thoughts.
"I said, why'd you even come? It's like," she glances at the time on her phone, "like 10PM on a weekday…"
He lets out a laugh, "You think this is late?"
And with an innocent look on her face she says, "Yes…"
He shakes his head, enamored by the woman beside him. Deciding he'd be honest, he shrugs, "I was bored, thought hmm I wonder what Asami and Yuuji are doing, and boom, I'm here. Also because I was hoping to get what happened that night at the forest out of you," he casually says, taking Asami by surprise, "So you gonna tell me?" and by now the two were intensely staring at one another, a tense silence in the air.
"Satoru—"
"Asami." he says her name, nothing playful behind his tone, signalling to Asami that he was being absolutely serious.
Lowering her shoulders, she sighs, "I-I don't know Satoru," she wholeheartedly says, "I don't. I keep trying to replay everything over and over in my head but it's all just one big blur. One moment I was simply walking in the forest hearing you fight that curse and the next thing I see is you shaking me, trying to wake me up out of whatever trance I was in."
Satoru runs a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated by the lack of answers, not that he could really blame her for it. If she said she didn't remember then she simply didn't remember, but Satoru could just feel that she was holding something back. As if she was scared of telling him the absolute truth.
"You said that curse could talk right?" Asami asks, and Satoru nods.
"Not only that but it seemed it was working with another high leveled curse," he scoffs, "Things are getting … fun," he smirks.
"Maybe for you," Asami says, underlying annoyance in her tone, "Had I known any this was going to happen when you asked me to return, and I would've said no," she lies, "I thought the whole point in this was to simply get the boy to swallow all of those grotesque fingers and call it a day. Now we have to fight unregistered special grade curses?"
Satoru wraps an arm around Asami's frame, "Don't act like you're not up for the challenge, think of it as a competition," he laughs, "Us against them, and as long as you got me on your team, you'll always be the winner," he flamboyantly winks.
Asami yawns, "Mm," she mumbles, getting up from the couch, "Well I'm going to bed, you know the way out."
"Aw no invite?"
"Satoru!"
"Just teasing you Asami!"
And with that Asami shuts the door to her room, hoping that the skeletons she had in the closet remained there, for she wasn't sure if she'd be lucky enough to run away from them this time.
A/N : ahhhh so we finally got to see the origins of Asami and how she was recruited into jujutsu tech, yay! What'd you guys think? At some point this story is going to fully go back to the past so we will see what happened in the "tour of tokyo" along with how their relationship developed from seemingly "enemies" to lovers :)) Updates will be a lot more slower now as I've started my Spring Quarter and have to try and pass calculus for business lol so expect one final update before I slow down a bit , see you all next time and stay safe ! Also this was proofread in a rush so sorry for any mistakes :((