Metanoia

by xoavshleyyy

(n.) the journey of changing one's mind, heart, self, or way of life.

17. Once Upon a Dream

Note:

Just a reminder, Satoru's infinity pre-Toji arc was still something that was being used manually rather than something "automatic" / on 24/7, so him getting tired and not being able to use his infinity is still very much a possibility in 2005 as well as other techniques. In chapter 69, his red technique doesn't work when he wants it to, meaning it still isn't something he mastered until his fight with Toji nor was it something he could multiple times as stated in Chapter 76. You will see why I say all this later in this chapter lol!

---

Chapter Fifteen.

Once Upon a Dream.

---

Placing on her rose-gold headpiece, Asami hears a knock on her door, "Come in!" she says, struggling to secure the vine-like accessory. Glancing to the side of her vanity mirror, which gives her a perfect view of the door, her mouth gapes open when she sees Shoko.

"You look amazing!" Asami practically throws her headpiece back onto the table, getting up from her seat in order to fawn over Shoko.

"Me?" Shoko chuckles, "You look like you've come straight out of a Disney princess movie," she looks at Asami up and down, admiring her off the shoulder, pastel-pink dress, which also had sheer long sleeves to add to it's princess-like effect. Not only that, but it also had an intricate design of petals along her waistline, as well as having a couple of them scattered across the skirt of the dress. Truly a beautiful dress for a beautiful girl.

Refusing to accept the compliment, Asami shakes her head, "I'm serious Shoko, I was a little skeptical when you said you were going to wear a black ball gown, but wow!" Asami's eyes remain wide, continuing to stare at the girl in front of her.

Though Shoko's dress didn't have any intricate details, it truly did fall under the "less is more" category, for its simplicity was what made it so great. Minus the sweetheart neckline, what Asami's favorite feature of the dress was that the sheer skirt didn't touch the ground, instead landing right above her ankles, resembling that of a 60's style dress, only without all the poofiness. It was a dress that screamed Shoko.

"And you even parted your bangs!" Asami grins, her friend looking like a completely different person without her side bangs.

Blushing, Shoko impulsively touches her hair, and it's only then that Asami notices the lace gloves she has on, causing her grin to grow even wider.

"Oh my God!" she grabs one of Shoko's hands, childishly ogling over the accessory.

Laughing, Shoko pulls her hands away, "Enough talking about me, look at you!" She motions to Asami to do a spin, for Asami's dress was fluffy in a way that wasn't too much, but still had that princess touch to it.

Hesitantly doing so, Shoko smiles when she sees faint golden sparkles begin to glitter under the light, truly in awe of the dress in front of her, "I don't remember the dress having this much detail when you bought it," Shoko recalls its original plain appearance, beginning to think that maybe she was blind.

"I customized it myself," Asami says, surprising Shoko, "Being in the circus industry means you have to learn how to add your own special flare to outfits," she chuckles, remembering how she used to love adding an excessive amount of glitter to her stage outfits, these days having toned it down a notch.

"I'm assuming the same goes for the hair and makeup?" Shoko asks, grabbing a strand of Asami's vintage hollywood-style curls, and twirling it with her finger.

Asami nods, walking over to her vanity and grabbing the headpiece she had thrown earlier, "Speaking of hair and makeup, you think you can clip this on for me?" she hands Shoko the accessory, sitting down back onto her chair.

"I should've just had you do my hair and makeup," Shoko playfully jokes around, still in subtle awe of the girl's appearance. It was because of her glam like appearance, that Shoko couldn't help but wonder what Asami looked like when performing, wondering if she carried as much beauty and grace as she was now. Perhaps even more.

"I wouldn't have minded," Asami chuckles, "Maybe next year," she says, assuming that they'd get to attend…

Carefully clipping the headpiece onto Asami's hair, Shoko makes sure to get the placement perfect, smiling to herself when she indeed does, "Ta da," she softly pats Asami's head, signalling to her that she was done.

Staring in the mirror, Asami's cheeks tinge pink, beginning to understand what Shoko meant when she said it looked as if she came out of a Disney princess movie, for that's what she currently felt like … a princess.

"Now to wait for our dates," Shoko sighs, noting that it was getting late. Not that she was worried about Suguru or anything, as he was probably in the dorm lounge waiting for them. If anything, the date she was worried about was Asami's, the boy not having shown up to ballroom dance practice a couple of days ago.

"Yeah…" Asami leans her head against her closed fist, tempted to ask the question running through her mind, knowing it wouldn't look "good" on her part if she did.

Deciding to ask anyway, she turns to Shoko, "So … Satoru's really not coming with us?' she bites her lip, hoping to have a change in answer.

"Nope," Shoko pops the "p" while shrugging, "Said he's just going to stay in his pajamas and see what movies are on rerun tonight," she adds, remembering that she'd seen him earlier at the lounge.

Asami sighs, bummed at the fact that he really wasn't going, thinking that he would've changed his mind by now, "But he went to dance practice and everything…"

She frowns, still feeling bad that he had to come down from his room and onto the field in order to be her practice partner, all because her date had something "important" come up at the last minute.

"Yeah, for you," is what Shoko wants to say, as she knows that had it been her in Asami's position, all Satoru would've done was laugh at her through the phone while also telling her to find someone else.

Instead she says, "Don't worry about him too much. Trust me, I think he'd much rather prefer staying here for the night than deal with his clan at the ball."

Asami raises a brow, "His family is going to be there?"

"I think so. Either that or something about representatives of the family. Considering the big three clans have tensions at an all time high, I'd assume it's the latter," she responds, recalling what Satoru had been complaining about a couple of days ago.

"Oh I see…" Asami says, not exactly caring for the politics going on around her, as all she cared about was whether Satoru was going or not. Turning back in the direction of her mirror, she tries not to make her disappointment too obvious, remembering their practice from a couple of days ago.

---

"Five, six, seven, eight…"

Step left. Step right. Natural turn. Reverse Turn. Change step. Change—

"Ow!" Satoru yelps in pain, his foot now throbbing in pain after being stepped on for the 20th time today.

"I'm sorry!" Asami quickly tries to apologize while placing a comforting hand onto his shoulder, "I thought I had it this time! I swear!" she cries out, noticing the annoyed expression on Satoru's face. Not like she could blame him, he'd been woken up from his nap for this, all because her date couldn't make it.

Sighing, Satoru tries not to lash out on her, "It's fine," he says, mentally preparing to try again, expecting himself to get stepped on once again.

"How about we take a break," Masamichi's fiance, who was currently in charge of teaching the first years how to ballroom dance, says to the two.

"But I think I got—"

"Just a 10 minute break Asami. So that Satoru here can recover a bit," Masamichi's fiance softly chuckles while giving Asami a reassuring smile, understanding that the Viennese waltz wasn't exactly something easy to learn.

Frowning, Asami nods, mumbly a tiny "Okay," while still feeling disappointed with herself.

Originally, she thought that because she had experience in the performing industry, she'd be able to get the dance without dropping a sweat. But if anything, she was the one struggling the most to get it down, something which made no sense! She spent years having to memorize routines and steps, so why was she having such a hard time with this?!

"Trust me, once you have the music and the ball gown on, it'll come natural to you," Masmaichi's fiance says before stepping away, presumably to get some water.

Slumping her shoulders, Asami lets out a frustrated exhale, mentally cursing herself for having two left feet. Getting over herself, she glances over at Satoru, "Are you okay?" she asks, still feeling bad.

And this time, rather than seeming grouchy, he laughs, "Yeah, like I said, it's fine," he offers her a small smile, giving her a tiny poke to the nose.

Face reddening, she crosses her arms out of embarrassment, now avoiding eye contact, "I don't get it … How are you so good at it?" she asks Satoru, referring to his dancing skills.

Not only was he receiving the most compliments out of the group of students, but he was also executing each and every move with perfection, truly having mastered the dance.

Satoru shrugs, "Just comes natural to me I guess," he responds truthfully, not exactly having any prior experience with the Viennese waltz. Maybe it was because of his Six Eyes, but the boy was naturally good at anything he tried, able to pick up things in the matter of minutes.

"And yet you're still not going to the ball," Asami shakes her head, still unable to wrap her mind around his decision.

"Yeah because I don't want to be a fifth wheel," he rolls his eyes, already imagining what it was going to be like if he went. Like hell was he going to stand there by himself and watch the girl he likes dance with some lanky idiot!

She mumbles, "You should still go," before stubbornly remaining silent, knowing he had a point.

"I'm okay, not like I won't get the opportunity next year," he says, watching Shoko and Suguru walk towards them, having returned from their water break.

"Mm," she hums, hoping he'd change his mind in the upcoming days, knowing she wouldn't feel right if he didn't.

---

"Any response yet?" Shoko looks at Asami, the two now waiting for a text back from Ren. The sun was now setting below the horizon, and if the two didn't get going soon then Masamichi was definitely going to give his students an earful.

Glancing at her phone once again, Asami shakes her head as a response, "I told him to be here at 7:00," she sighs, continuing to rest her head against the palm of her hand, waiting for the "Ding!" tone.

Frowning, Shoko wants nothing more than to give this dude a piece of her mind, already having a certain disdain for him after what Asami had told her about their night at the circus together. Not only was he a pretentious piece of shit, but now he was setting Asami up!

Ding!

Asami quickly grabs her phone, reading the text message she had just received.

Assuming that Ren must be outside already, Shoko waits for Asami's confirmation. So when Asami in fact laughs, Shoko becomes confused, wondering why her friend wasn't getting up from her vanity chair.

Bringing a hand to her mouth, Asami continues to softly chuckle to herself.

Finally looking up from her phone, she gives Shoko a small smile, "It looks like I'm not going to the ball tonight," she ultimately says, plopping her hands onto her tulle skirt.

"What?!" Shoko feels her heart pound, "Why not, what the hell?!"

Reading the text aloud, Asami mimics Ren's condescending tone, "Sorry for not telling you sooner but I don't think I can make it tonight as I have a very important interview…"

"An interview for what? At this time of day? Yeah, right!" Shoko's voice raises, portraying the pissed off state that Asami should've been feeling. Not often was it that Shoko would break out of her laid back personality, but when it came to things like this, even she could get riled up.

Asami motions to her that she's not done reading, "I hope I can make it up to you in the future and that you don't take any of this the wrong way. xo. Ren."

Rolling her eyes, Asami scoffs, realizing that she should've seen this coming when he bailed on dance practice.

Shoko frowns, "I'm sorry Asami," she says, preparing to comfort the girl.

But rather than cry as if she had her heart broken, Asami instead nonchalantly shrugs, "I don't feel sad," she surprisingly says, causing Shoko's eyes to widen in subtle shock.

"In fact… I sorta feel relieved," Asami laughs, kicking off her heels in the process, "If anything. I'm just annoyed at the fact that I spent several hours getting ready, when I could've been in my pajamas all day just like Satoru!"

"Wait … what?" Shoko blinks in surprise, carefully studying the apathetic girl in front of her. What the hell did she mean by "she was relieved"? She just got stood up at the last minute! If anything, Asami should be going off on this Ren dude because God knows if it was Shoko in her position and—

A smile gradually appears on Shoko's face, the healer coming to a sudden realization. How did she not realize it before, she mentally scolds herself for being such an idiot. The reason Asami wasn't upset was because…

"You like Satoru," Shoko says in faint disbelief, catching Asami by surprise.

A blush creeps onto her face, "N-No I don't. What are you talking about?" Asami nervously laughs, only causing Shoko to shake her head in amusement.

Tonight was the night, Shoko tells herself. Tonight Asami and Satoru would finally come to admit their feelings to each other!

Deciding not to further question the girl, Shoko instead tugs at her arm, forcing Asami to get up, "You're going to the ball!" she declares, pulling out her phone to text her partner in crime.

"B-But I don't have a date," Asami frantically puts her shoes back on, wondering who the hell Shoko was texting.

Pressing send, Shoko mischievously smiles, "Yes, you do."

---

Meanwhile …

"Destroy it—Go on! Throw it in the fire! What are you waiting for? Just let it go!"

"The Ring is mine."

"No—"

Click.

"Hey!" Satoru yells out, now scowling at his best friend who had just turned off the lounge's TV, "The movie was just getting to its climax!" he adds, for Frodo had just succumbed to the will of the ring.

Suguru rolls his eyes, "Don't act like you haven't watched the movie before already," he says, now standing in front of Satoru.

"So? Didn't realize that meant I couldn't watch it again," Satoru lets out an annoyed huff of air while studying Suguru's elegant appearance. Compared to his own lousy pajamas, Suguru's fitted dress shirt and black slim pants made him look like he came straight out of Hollywood, the boy even wearing his suit jacket draped over his shoulder like some hot-shot.

"Tch," Satoru deepens his frown, "What do you want anyway? Don't you have a ball to get to?" he mockingly sneers, clearly feeling bitter.

"I'm just waiting for Shoko to text me," Suguru answers truthfully, ignoring his friend's rude attitude, at this point used to it, "But I thought since I had time, I'd come visit you…." he takes a seat next to him on the couch, awkward silence now filling the air.

Internally sighing, Satoru knows exactly what his friend is about to ask, scoffing when his prediction is indeed correct.

"... You sure you don't want to come with us?" Suguru asks for one final time, not wanting his friend to later regret his decision.

Satoru refrains from rolling his eyes, instead grabbing some of the sugar cubes from the bowl of sweets he had and popping them into his mouth, "One hundred percent sure," he says in between chews, pretending to act smug.

"Mm."

"What?"

"Nothing," Suguru shrugs, knowing exactly what he was doing by pretending to act all vague, something Satoru absolutely hated.

"Grow some balls and say it," he mutters, throwing another sugar cube into his mouth.

"Me?" Suguru scoffs, "You're the one who's too much of a wuss to go to the ball, all because the girl you like has another date," he says, purposely irritating Satoru.

"You're still with that?"

"Well yeah, especially considering you just knocked on my door at 1AM, declared your feelings for the girl, and then just left like nothing happened!" Suguru chuckles, recalling the events of last weekend.

---

"I like Asami," Satoru repeatedly utters to himself in complete astonishment, having come to the realization a mere few minutes ago after walking Asami back to her room.

Now on his way back to his own room, he feels as if he's been hit by a semi-truck, asking himself a number of different questions. How did he let this all happen? When did his disdain for the girl become foolish adoration? What was he supposed to do about these feelings of his? Is he supposed to tell her? What would she say?

Running a hand through his hair, he climbs up the stairs to his dorm's hallway, overwhelmed by the number of questions running through his mind. 'This is bad,' he tells himself, 'Really fucking bad.'

There was just no way he could like her! Yeah, she was pretty and smart while also having this smile that never failed to light up whatever room she walked into. Not to mention she had this laugh that was just so infectious as well as those little habits he always found so cute! Don't even get him started on the preppy style she had, which originally he found to be annoying, but these days it was one of his favorite things about her, for the style complimented her appearance….

Gulping, he knows he can no longer deny it. He liked Asami—no ifs, ands, or buts.

Feeling the impulsive need to tell someone, he soon finds himself knocking on Suguru's door, knowing he'd be unable to sleep unless he got his feelings off his chest.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

He pounds on his best friend's door, not caring for how late it was. This was an important matter he had on his hands, a life altering discovery! Something that was going to change their world as they knew it!

The door swings wide open, revealing a grumpy looking Suguru.

"What do you want, Sat—"

"I like her," Satoru interrupts him, not caring for the demeaning scowl on his best friend's face.

"Huh?"

"You heard me," Satoru feels his heart pump, the thought of saying the words to someone who wasn't himself extremely nerve-wracking. He could only imagine how he'd feel when (or if) he potentially confesses to Asami.

"What are you talking about?"

"I like Asami," Satoru says, feeling as if the world was anew, the overwhelming weight on his shoulder now gone.

"Wait … what?" Suguru blinks in surprise, wondering if he was hearing correctly.

"Yup," Satoru pops the "p", quickly turning around and making his way to his room, "Now that I've got that off my chest, goodnight!"

Suguru quickly follows him out the door, a number of questions now running through his head, "What the hell?! What do you think you're—"

Satoru's door slams in Suguru's face, leaving the curse-manipulation user in blatant shock, "Satoru! Open the door!" he continuously pounds on his door, now extremely pissed off. And after several minutes of ceaseless knocking, the sound of Satoru's loud snores could then be heard, the boy falling fast asleep.

"Bastard," Suguru mutters to himself, ultimately deciding to give up. Sighing, he can't help but smile, "Well at least he finally admits it," he says to himself, softly chuckling before returning back to his room.

---

Satoru nonchalantly shrugs, "So what? I like Asami. No big deal," he places his feet onto the coffee table in front of him, adding onto his uncaring facade, even though he knew deep down it was an extremely big deal.

"If it wasn't a big deal, you would've told her by now," Suguru says, making Satoru pout, for the Six Eyes user knew he had a point.

"Whatever," Satoru huffs, crossing his arms like a child, "Just let me be, yeah?" he turns the TV back on, groaning in irritation when he sees that the movie is over, the credits now rolling.

Eyeing his best friend, Suguru sighs, "Fine, I won't bug you about it anymore," he says, getting up from the couch, "Anyways, I should get going. If not I'll have to hear Masamichi's endless lecture about being late," he begins to walk towards the door, placing his suit jacket on, "I'll see you tomor—"

Ding!

Satoru glances at Suguru, who was now frowning as he read the recent text on his phone, "What happened?" he asks, wondering what it was that could've led to his friend's shift in mood.

"Asami's date stood her up," Suguru says, causing Satoru to immediately stand on his feet.

"Huh?!" he quickly makes his way to Suguru, snatching the phone in his hand and reading the text for himself, "Stupid bastard," he mutters.

Harshly handing Suguru his phone back, Satoru prepares to walk out, his blood now boiling. Who the hell did this guy think he was? No way was he going to get away with standing Asami up!

Pulling him back, Suguru furrows his brows in confusion, "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"To go find that piss-haired idiot!" Satoru dramatically yells, acting as if it was the most obvious thing to do, not caring if he was still in his Digimon patterned pajamas.

"Do you even know where he lives?" Suguru asks, knowing that any rational thinking had been thrown out the window.

"No, but I'll find out!" Satoru tries to push his friend's hand off, ready to resort to using his infinity.

Using all of his strength, Suguru tries to tug him back inside, "How about instead—" he lets out a faint grunt, feeling his grip starting to come loose as he grinds his teeth together, "we focus—"

Satoru continues to resist, also focusing on putting his every bit of force into pulling away.

"...on getting..." Suguru then purposely lets go of Satoru's hand, making him almost fall flat on his face had he not turned on his infinity in time, "...you ready," Suguru says while trying to catch his breath.

Glaring at his best friend, it takes Satoru a couple of seconds to process his complete statement, "What are you talking about?" he gets up from the floor, patting his knees despite him not actually ever touching the ground.

"You heard me Cinderella," Suguru fixes his suit jacket by gently tugging at the lapels, thankful that nothing ripped, "We gotta be at the ball in less than thirty minutes and you're still in your freaking pajamas."

Satoru's face then pales, "But…" his lips faintly part, words refusing to come out of his mouth as he tries to wrap his mind around his friend's words.

"But what? The girl you like just got stood up and rather than rushing to swoop in like prince charming, you're standing here like an idiot with your mouth open," Suguru pinches the bridge of his nose, while Satoru was still staring at him in blatant shock.

Shaking his head, Suguru yanks his friend by the neck of his shirt, "Come on, we're getting you ready for the ball," he says with a small smile on his face, luckily having an extra suit in his closet.

---

Anxiously moving his shoulders around, Satoru feels his fingers become clammy, for some reason feeling nervous at the idea of seeing Asami, "You sure she agreed to this?" he asks, glancing at Suguru, who currently stood beside him, the two now waiting for their dates to come down the stairs.

Chuckling, Suguru nods, finding the appearance of a nervous Satoru to be a funny sight, "I know it's hard to believe, but yes, she did," he teases his best friend, resulting in a glare from him.

Biting his tongue, Satoru tries to calm his nerves down by focusing on anything else but the stairs in front of him, ultimately choosing to fiddle with the left sleeve of his suit jacket. It was weird, Suguru was a couple of inches shorter than him, as well as being on more of the muscular side than the lankier one like himself, but somehow this suit managed to fit him perfectly.

Hell, Suguru even had an extra bouquet of flowers for him to give to Asami, almost as if the events from earlier had been something expected. Deciding to question his best friend some other time, Satoru tightens his grip on the pink-themed bouquet in his hands, his heart beginning to beat out of his chest when he hears the sound of heels going down the stairs.

"We are finally done!" Shoko is the first to come down, greeting her two classmates with a giant smile on her face, ready to get the night started, "Come on Asami! We gotta get going!" she shouts, the auxiliary manager, who was driving them to the ball, having texted them several times already that it was time to go.

"Coming!" Satoru hears Asami shout in return, the girl currently fixing something under the skirt of her dress. Biting his lip, Satoru attempts to swallow the forming lump in his throat, knowing that she was going to come down at any moment.

'You like her and it's not a big deal. You like her and it's not a big deal. You like her and it's not a big—'

Honestly, it was funny. Whenever Satoru would see corny romance movies, he'd cringe at scenes like this where the love interest lays their eyes on the main character for the first time, more often than not, rolling his eyes and complaining about how unrealistic they were. To have your breath "hitch" at the sight of someone was complete nonsense, he'd say, believing that things like that only happened in movies.

But right now…

Right now that it was happening to him...

Well now he understood.

Because in a moment like this … what was there to say?

Slowly coming down the stairs, Asami softly smiles at the boy in front of her, trying her best not to trip on her gown, fearful that she'd end up making a fool out of herself in front of him.

Watching her walk towards him, Satoru continues to stare at her with nothing but pure adoration, truly in complete awe of her appearance. Enough to the point where he doesn't realize that she's already standing in front of him, a faint blush now on her cheeks as she feels his burning gaze.

Feeling a nudge to his arm, Satoru hears Suguru faintly whisper something to him.

"Tell her she looks pretty."

"You look…" Satoru gulps, feeling his heart race as the two now stare at each other, for the first time in his life understanding what the whole "butterflies in your stomach" feeling was all about, "Y-You look…." he stutters while repeating his words from before, wanting to find the right word to describe her, for pretty just wasn't enough.

With a warm look in her eyes, Asami wants to tell him that the look on his face was enough to tell her what he thought of her in this moment, "Sato—"

"... breathtaking," he finally finds the right word, "You look absolutely breathtaking," he says with more confidence than before, gently handing her the flowers in his hands.

"Sorry for the late notice," she shyly whispers to him, noticing his hair was still damp from his last minute shower.

He gives her a tiny smile, "It's fine," he says, poking her nose just like he always does.

Smiling at the scene in front of them, Suguru and Shoko give each other a knowing look, happy that things ended up working out in their favor.

"Come on, you two can continue fawning over each other at the ball," Shoko says while beginning to walk out with Suguru, causing the blushes on her friends' faces to deepen, neither one of them bothering to deny the accusation.

Now left alone, Satoru and Asami glance at each other one final time, the tall boy then offering his arm to the girl beside him. Looping her arm with his, the two grin from ear to ear, ready for their night at the ball.

---

Shiodome District.

8:00 PM.

"Oh my God," Asami looks at the skyscraper in front of her, she and her friends having barely arrived at the venue of the ball.

"Pretty huh?" Suguru chuckles, unaware of the girl's fear of heights, "Just imagine the view when we're all the way at the top," he says, causing Asami's eyes to bulge out of their sockets.

"T-The t-top?" she stutters, goosebumps running down her arms.

Noticing Asami's pale face, Satoru quickly tries to reassure her, "He means the patio view, but the ball is still being thrown indoors, meaning you don't have to step out if you don't want to," he says, hoping his words would bring her some kind of comfort.

"But we're still technically going to be at the top, aren't we?" she begins to panic, the tone of her voice coming out harsher than intended.

"We are, but as long as you stick next to me, you'll be just fine. I promise you," he gives her a small reassuring smile, watching the momentary look of terror in her eyes wash away.

"Okay," she mumbles, now walking alongside him as the group of four make their way towards a grumpy looking Masamichi, who currently had his arms crossed as he stared at them from the entrance of the building.

"You're all late," he says, tired of having to lecture his students about the importance of being on time.

"Sorry," Suguru starts, acting as the group's spokesman, "We ran into some ….trouble …." he feigns a laugh, hoping his sensei would understand just this once.

Eyeing him, Masamichi decides he'll question him later, "Come on you four," he leads them inside and into the elevator, clicking the "66" button, the final floor of the building.

Anxiously tapping her foot, Asami tries her best not to count each floor, knowing that if she did she'd only make herself more nervous.

"Look," Satoru whispers beside her, pulling out a small spinning toy from his pocket, something that years in the future would boom in popularity … a fidget spinner.

Curling her lips, she looks at the small toy in wonder, "Where did you get that from?" she asks, watching the different colors overlap each other as they create a cool illusion.

He shrugs, "Some street vendor sold it to me, said it's the next big thing," he answers, continuing to spin it with his fingers, the girl now fully hypnotized by the thing, completely forgetting about how high up they were going.

"Can I try?" she kindly asks him, Satoru then nodding and handing it over to her. Pushing it with her fingers, she smiles as she watches it spin, now wanting one of her own.

Ding!

"We're here," she hears Masamichi say, slowly turning her attention away from the fidget spinner in order to look up. Lips parting, she stares at what's in front of her in complete awe, convinced that she was in some kind of fairytale.

"Woah," the four teens collectively whisper, slowly stepping out of the elevator while carefully studying the glamorous venue in front of them.

From the grand staircase to the Baroque style walls which were engraved with golden-colored designs, everything was absolutely marvelous. Placing a hand over her mouth, Asami finds herself at a complete loss for words as she stares at the sparkling crystal chandeliers, wondering just how many candles there were in each. Not only that, but the number of flowers and golden drapes that filled the room was out of this world, the sound of an orchestra then filling her ears.

"I feel like I'm dreaming," Asami breathes out in disbelief, watching elegantly dressed guests make their way onto the center marble floor, ready to dance as if there was no tomorrow.

"I didn't think the higher ups would go all out…" Satoru says, looking up at the theatre-like box seats, knowing those old hags were probably watching them from above.

"Me neither," Suguru says while grabbing a cheese appetizer from one of the passing waiters, several of them carrying large appetizer boards along with fancy glasses of champagne.

Acting as if he was going to grab one, Satoru teasingly laughs when he sees the look on Masamichi's face, "It's just a joke sensei!" he says, making his friends laugh.

"Tch," Masamichi rolls his eyes, preparing to scold his student until he sees that his fiancé is now making her way towards them.

"There you all are!" she smiles at the students, the four of them politely bowing to her, "So you ended up coming after all!" she looks at Satoru, remembering how the young boy kept insisting during practice that he wasn't coming to the ball, despite Asami constantly trying to badger him into going.

"Oh… yeah," he scratches the back of his neck, also recalling his stubborn resistance.

"And you're even Asami's date!" she exclaims, barely noticing that the two were standing side by side, "How cute!" she excitedly claps her hands, a beaming smile now on her face as she begins to ramble, "Does that mean you two are finally dating? Because I was telling Yaga here that—"

"O-Oh we're not um—" Asami and Satoru ferociously blush, the two of them accidentally interrupting Masamichi's fiancé at the same time.

Noticing the shy looks on their faces, Masamichi's fiancé places a hand to her mouth, realizing that she had put the two students in an awkward position, "Oh I'm sorry!" she says, Masamichi now tugging at her dress as a way to say that maybe they should get going.

"R-Right," she nervously laughs, "Well I guess we'll see you kids on the dance floor!" She begins to walk away with her future-husband, but not before yelling, "And remember, natural turn first, reverse turn last!" She reminds them of the basics, eyeing a certain red-head.

Pouting, Asami begrudgingly looks away, not wanting to be reminded of her lack of dancing skills.

"So … now what?" Shoko looks around, the teens having been left to themselves.

Suguru shrugs, "I already ate so …" he offers his hand to Shoko, "Wanna go dance?"

Shoko then shrugs as well, grabbing his hand in the process, "Sure, why not?" she chuckles, the two then leaving Satoru and Asami to themselves.

And for a small moment, awkward silence fills the air.

Feigning a cough, Satoru decides to follow Suguru's lead and ask Asami to dance, "Wanna go—"

"Let's go find something to eat!" Asamii quickly interrupts him, grabbing his hand and leading him to anywhere but the center of the dance floor, "Maybe there's a photobooth we can take pictures in!" she says, hoping she'd be able to avoid any mention of "dancing" for the whole night.

Not thinking much of her actions, Satoru follows her lead, assuming they'd simply dance later….

---

2 Hours Later.

"Asam—"

Asami stuffs a piece of sushi into Satoru's mouth, effectively silencing him before he can say anything, "Aren't these so good?!" she pretends to rave about the plain piece of sushi on her plate, "I mean the salmon is out of this world!" she watches him grumpily swallow down the food, giving him an apologetic smile when she sees that his brows were now furrowed.

Taking a sip of his drink, he clears his throat before saying anything, having caught on to what she was doing well over an hour ago.

Biting her lip, Asami nervously stares at him, feeling as if she was a kid in trouble.

Sighing, Satoru smiles at her, letting a faint chuckle escape from his lips, "Asami…" is all he says while giving her a knowing look, not exactly having to say anything in order for her to understand what he was referring to, a simple glance at the dancefloor telling her enough.

"I suck and you know it," she mutters, purposely avoiding eye contact with him, "I'll only embarrass us," she adds, hoping he'd take pity on her.

"No you won't," he says, signalling to the waiter that they were done with their meal, "Come on," he sticks his hand out, now getting up from his seat.

Frowning, she slumps her shoulders, "I-I can't Satoru," she quietly says, glancing over at Shoko and Suguru who seemed to be having the time of their lives on the dancefloor, Shoko currently completing her spins with the biggest smile on her face, resembling that of a princess, "Like I said, I'll only embarrass us," she repeats her words from before, fully believing them.

"So what if you do?"

She stares at Satoru wide-eyed, his words taking her by complete surprise. Expecting him to begin laughing, she finds herself taken back by the serious look on his face.

"What are these people going to do about it? Laugh?" he scoffs, "Stop caring about what weak people like them think about a strong person like you," he says, knowing everyone in this room was weak when compared to them, meaning any one of their opinions were inavalid in his eyes.

"But—"

"Just one dance," he says, hoping she'd say yes.

Remaining silent, she stares at him in contemplation, "Just one?" she asks, giving him a skeptical look.

"Just one," he repeats with affirmation, smiling when he feels her hand get placed on his own.

Gulping, Asami tries not to think too much, knowing that if she did, she'd only chicken out, "Wait!" she suddenly says, causing him to halt in his tracks.

"What happened?" he asks, his voice laced with genuine concern.

Eyes widening, he watches her step closer and closer to him, the girl making it seem as if she was about to kiss him. That is until he feels his sunglasses come off, Asami now holding the infamous pair of shades in her hands.

"It doesn't look right," she says, making him scoff in the process.

Grabbing them from her hands, he places the round spectacles into the pocket of his slacks, "Only because you agreed to dance," he says, making her laugh. As long as he didn't go too long without them then honestly, he didn't mind. But considering he was in a room full of shamans loaded with different levels of cursed energy, the thought of having to deal with sensory overload later was already tiring.

Pushing his thoughts aside, he makes a mental note to put them on later, leading Asami to the circle of dancers who were currently waiting for the next song to play.

'Remember what you were taught,' Asami tells herself while bowing at the first note of the classical song that was beginning to play, anxiously looking at the couples around her in an effort to follow their lead.

Getting into stance, she hesitantly places her left arm against his right bicep, her right hand then holding onto his left. Breath hitching, she feels his grip around her waist tighten, the two slowly beginning to sway left and right, following the rhythm of the music playing around them.

Tensing up, she feels as if she's about to make a mistake, "Relax and follow my lead Asami," she hears him whisper into her ear, the boy now gazing at her with soft eyes, "One, two …. One, two …. One, two …." he quietly counts for her, leading her through the music, noticing that her movements were becoming smoother with every step.

'One, two…. One, two….' she counts with him in her head, beginning to get a feel for the rhythm of the song, a small smile slowly forming on her lips as she steadily begins to exude confidence, her body now acting on its own.

"You're doing amazing," he murmurs, letting go of her waist and subtly tapping her elbow, signalling to her that it was time for a spin, "One … two…"

She gracefully spins, her pink dress billowing around her as she returns back to his arms, her heart now swelling with joy as an uncontrollable feeling surges through her body.

"One… two…." he continues to say, soon hearing a small "Shh," come out of her mouth, the boy then raising his eyebrow.

"I think I got it," she softly whispers, the two then smiling at each other as they continue to dance, unaware of the passing time, for being in each other's presence was truly timeless.

Meanwhile, Shoko and Suguru watch their friends dance from afar, smiling to themselves as they sense their complete utter joy, "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Shoko says while swaying from side to side, Suguru then nodding.

Maneuvering their way around the circle of dancers, Shoko and Suguru subtly tap at people's shoulders, motioning to them that they should halt their dancing until soon enough, it's only Satoru and Asami on the dance floor, both of them too lost in their own world to notice the number of eyes that were now on them. That's because in their eyes, the scenery and people around them had dissolved long ago…

Closing her eyes, Asami tilts her head slightly back, allowing the wind from their movements to take over her, hair now swaying as she finds herself never wanting to wake up from this dream she was living in. Performing several spins, she unknowingly demonstrates her sparkling dress to the crowd, silent gazes of awe observing her every move.

And as the two pick up their speed, Asami feels as if she's flying through the wind.

Smiling, she recalls a childhood memory…

---

"Tale as old as time, tune as old as song. Bittersweet and strange, finding you can change, learning you were wrong…"

A six year old Asami watches the screen in front of her with pure joy in her eyes, watching her favorite movie for the third time this week, convinced that she'd never get tired of it. Humming along to the music, she smiles as she watches Belle fall in love with the beast, unaware that her mother had just slipped into the room.

"Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme..." Asami sings, her mother now silently sitting next to her.

"Beauty and the Beast," Misaki completes for her daughter, the little girl then leaning her head against her mother's side, allowing her to gently run a hand through her long locks of hair.

"I wanna dance like that one day mommy," Asami says, causing Misaki to warmly chuckle.

"I'm sure you will Asami," she whispers, smiling down at the little girl beside her.

"I'm being serious!" Asami's lisp comes out, the girl having recently lost a tooth, "I'm going to find myself a prince and we're going to dance into the sky!" she declares a little too loudly, quickly placing a hand over her mouth when she realizes how loud she was being, not wanting to wake up her father.

Endeared by her daughter's words, Misaki ruffles her hair, "I know you are Asami," she says, supporting her daughter's so-called "dream".

"But just remember Asami, you can have fun with your prince, but don't ever rely on him," she reminds her daughter of the importance of having independence.

Giving her mother a toothy grin, Asami nods, "Don't worry mommy, I know," she laughs, "If anything, the prince will have to depend on me!" she says, making her mom smile even more, the two continuing to watch the movie to its end, Asami then falling fast asleep in her mother's arms.

---

Softly wrapping her arm behind his neck, Asami feels as if the world has stopped when she looks into his eyes, her body slowly dipping downard as his hands gently guide her to one of the most intimate positions of the dance.

"You ready?" he asks her, staring at her parted lips as she silently nods her head. Pulling her back up, he quickly places his hands around her cinched waist, lifting her up in the air for the world to see, faint gasps coming out of people's mouths.

Feeling her eyes water, Asami watches the room spin, feeling as if she was on top of the world. It almost reminded her of her days back at the circus, her aerial hoop never failing to bring her this indescribable rush of joy that she was currently feeling. A feeling she quite often found herself missing….

Placing her back onto the ground, Satoru dips her for one final time, the sound of erupt applause then following. Finally looking around themselves, their cheeks redden when they see they're the only ones on the dancefloor, the two immediately wondering why they were the only ones there.

But before they could ponder on it too much, a number of couples were already running back onto the dance floor, the orchestra now playing a more upbeat sonata, folks beginning to swing themselves in circles as they grabbed onto their partners.

Going along with everyone's lead, Asami and Satoru begin to swing themselves around as well, childish grins on their faces as they hold on tightly to each other, not caring for how dizzy they were getting, unaware that there were a pair of evil eyes watching them from afar.

"Come on! Let's step out for a second!" Asami shouts over the music.

Satoru nods, letting her lead him through the crowd and onto the venue's balcony, surprised that she'd actually want to step out considering how high up they were.

Letting go of Satoru's hand, Asami tries to catch her breath now that they are outside, currently feeling as if she were on cloud nine. Running a hand through her hair, she smiles at him, "That was…" she tries to find the right word, settling for, "... amazing."

He laughs at her enthusiasm, watching her as she throws her arms in the air and plops them down, Satoru then making his way towards the railing of the balcony, leaning his forearms on the cold piece of metal.

"Come," he turns to her, the girl purposely lingering near the door despite it being her idea to come outside.

"Mm," she bites her lip, knowing that the sole reason she wanted to come out was because she wanted to feel that same rush she had before when she was in the air. But now that she was actually here, a mere few feet away from the edge, she was beginning to have her doubts.

Sticking his hand out to her, he gives her a comforting smile, "As long as you're holding my hand, nothing is going to happen to you, I promise."

And slowly, but surely, Asami begins to take a couple of steps forward, quickly grabbing his large hand once she's in reach. Hands slightly trembling, she gives his hand a tight squeeze, shutting her eyes closed as he leads her to the railing.

Taking in deep breaths, Asami tries not to panic, feeling him place her free hand onto the rail, the palms of her hands now clammy as she tightly grips onto the metal pole.

"Asami, you can open your eyes now," he chuckles, giving her a reassuring squeeze of his own with his hand.

"Just give me a moment," she nervously laughs, taking a final deep breath in before slowly opening her eyes….

Eyes widening, she blinks at the view in front of her, finding herself unsure of what to say, the dazzling lights of the city leaving her completely speechless.

"Pretty, huh?" Satoru says, endeared by the childish look on her face.

Nodding her head, she slowly looks down, her face comically going blue when she sees just how high up they are, immediately regretting the foolish move. Taking a step back, she prepares to make a run for it, making Satoru laugh.

"Don't forget I'm here," he gently tugs at her hand, reminding her that she'd be just fine.

"Right, right," she breathes out, keeping her gaze forward rather than below her, "I'm sorry," she says, now feeling embarrassed by her childish behavior, "I just," she pauses, "I just wanted to see what it was like again…"

He tilts his head in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Being this high up," she clarifies, "When you lifted me up back inside, it um…" she hesitates to continue for a moment, "It just reminded me of my days back at the circus," she feigns a laugh, trying not to get too emotional, "especially when the crowd started clapping, it just brought me back to those nights I would perform and well…"

She shakes her head, her words making her feel foolish, "Like I said, I just wanted to see what it was like again," she repeats, a frown now appearing on her face.

Staring at her, he's reminded of their first tutoring session with each other, recalling the way she spoke about the circus, almost as if it was something she was ashamed about. Not only that, but he also remembers how tense she got at the mention of it that night at the carnival, the girl making it clear that the topic was something iffy for her. So then … why was she mentioning it now? And what did it have to with her fear of—

"Your accident," Satoru says out of nowhere, everything suddenly beginning to make sense, "The one that made Masamichi recruit you to the school … the one that caused you to become scared of heights…." Satoru stares at her in slight disbelief.

Remaining silent, she avoids making eye contact with him, feeling ashamed at the mention of her accident.

"Asami—"

"I used to love it …" she laughs, remembering her days in the circus, "I used to love being in the air during a performance, feeling as if I was one of the stars in the night sky, if not shining just as bright as them…." the tone of her voice becomes weak, "And I used to love showing the crowd just how much of a fearless person I was …that I was free..." she feels her voice shake, biting her lip in an effort to not cry, refusing to cry in front of him.

"But then it happened," she says, referring to her accident, "It happened and it changed everything for me," she scoffs, any forming tears now gone, "It's not that I hate the circus, but for some reason, whenever I remember it now, I can't help but feel … angry," she feels a heavy weight come off her chest, having never said that outloud.

Satoru remains silent, continuing to hold onto her hand while carefully listening to her words.

"Angry at my parents, angry at that stupid curse, angry at…" she squeezes his hand out of frustration, "Angry at myself," she finally admits to herself, replaying that night in her head.

"But why?" he asks her, brows now furrowed, "What happened was an accident," he says, not wanting her to blame herself.

"I know but..."

"But nothing Asami," he interrupts her, deciding he wasn't going to listen to her talk bad about herself.

Sighing, she pouts while looking at the view, "I can't lie, I do miss it sometimes," she says, referring to her aerial hoop act, a faint glimmer appearing in her brown eyes, "I just wish I wasn't so scared," she sighs, "Mm, if only I could fly…. then I'd soar across the sky and surely get over my fear," she laughs, unaware that a certain someone now had a lightbulb go off in his head.

Silence fills the air for a small moment, Satoru debating whether to go through with his idea.

"You being serious?" he asks out of nowhere, her brow then raising.

"About?"

"Flying," he says, making her nervously chuckle.

"Yeah, but—"

"Then let's do it!" he grins, letting go of her hand and crouching down, signalling to her to get on his back.

Eyes widening, she stares at him in shock, "W-What are you talking about?!" she asks in panic, face now reddening, "Are you crazy?!"

"Come on! You said you wanted to fly! And I'm giving you the opportunity to!" he pats his back, still waiting for her to get on.

"But you can't even fly yourself!" she throws her hands in the air, convinced that he had lost his mind.

"Yes I can!" he retorts, making her eyes roll. Giving him a knowing look, he changes his answer, "Okay technically I can't, not yet at least, but I've been working on it! You just need to trust me, okay?"

"You're crazy!" she snorts, preparing to make her way back inside.

"Come on Asami! Don't you trust me?" he stands back up, barely managing to grab the tip of her fingers, forcing her to face him, "Pleaseeeee," he gives her the puppy-dog eyes, something Asami normally found cringe-worthy when coming from other people, but because Satoru had such good looks, it in fact looked quite adorable coming from him.

Glaring at him, she stubbornly crosses her arms, deep down knowing that the bastard loved himself too much to just let himself fall to his death, meaning he definitely had some kind of plan.

Continuing to give her the puppy dog eyes, he sees the expression on her face slowly go from blatant annoyance to pure skepticism. Motioning to him to turn around, Satoru quickly follows her order and crouches down.

Hesitantly walking towards him, she slowly wraps her arms around his shoulders, gasping when she feels him grab at her legs, not exactly giving her any kind of warning.

"Ha, your dress sure is thick," he says, making sure he had a good grip on her legs, for the material of the dress made it hard to do so. Double checking that the dress wasn't touching the floor, Satoru soon climbs up one of the balcony tables, "Make sure you hold on tight Asami," he says, preparing to place his feet on the rail.

Scowling at him, she quickly tugs at his hair before tightening her grip, at this point practically choking the boy, "No shit, you idiot!" she yells at him, making him yelp in pain. Shutting her eyes, she feels her breath hitch when she senses that he's stepped onto the railing, the wind now kissing her face as her knuckles go white.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," she whispers in anxiousness, her chest heaving out of complete fear.

"Asami, you have to open your eyes," Satoru chuckles, perfectly keeping his balance on the rail below him despite holding a shivering Asami.

Cautiously opening a single eye, she takes a cowardice peek at the view below her, becoming dizzy when she sees the number of different cars speeding through the highway below them, a chill then running down her spine.

Immediately shutting her eyes once again, Asami begins to shake her head in panic, "I-I can't!" she squirms in his grasp, "I'm too scared," she yells over the sound of the gusting wind.

"But you don't have to be," he shouts in return, "Not as long as you're with me!"

Opening her eyes, she stares at him in shock, blood rushing into her ears as everything becomes soundless. At this point the only thing she could focus on was the childish grin on his face, the one that was telling her everything would be just fine.

Sighing, she mentally prepares herself for the jump ahead, "If we die, I'm cursing the hell out of you," she hisses into his ear, making him laugh.

"You ready?" he hears her loudly gulp, the two now looking downward. Squeezing him one last time, she nods, the memories of her nights at the circus beginning to flood back as Satoru starts to tilt forward. With a small smile on her face, she takes a final deep breath in, ready to feel what it was like to fly again.

"1….2….."

It all happens so quickly. From the two falling off the edge to Asami screaming her lungs out as if there was no tomorrow. Every second of it was an absolute blur.

Smiling like an idiot, Satoru enjoys the rush of adrenaline flowing through his veins, watching the number of windows pass him by as they come closer to the ground, ignoring the sounds of Asami's faint shrieks.

"S-Satoru," she manages to stutter out, the cars coming closer and closer, their imminent death waiting for them with open arms, "Satoru," she repeats his name again, wondering why the hell he wasn't doing anything.

'Oh no, oh no, oh no!' her breathing becomes erratic as she begins to panic, 'No way … no way is he just going to let us crash!' She repeats his name over and over again, eyes widening as she hears the sound of cars honking and swerving, letting out a final terror-filled scream, "SATORU!"

Poof.

The two vanish into thin air, teleporting to an even higher feet than the skyscraper they had been standing on, floating in the sky high above them, giving them a view of not only the city, but what felt like the whole world.

Panting for breath, Asami's truly at a loss for words, "H-How—" a smile of disbelief begins to form on her lips, unable to believe what she was seeing. Did that really just happen? Did they really just do that?

"I told you to trust me," he teases her, for the childish gleam in her eyes now told him that she was no longer scared.

Ignoring his smug remark, she continues to stare at what's around her in wonder, convinced that none of this was real and that soon she'd wake up from this dream, for everything that was happening tonight all seemed like it was straight out of some kind of magical fairytale.

"This is…" she shakes her head, knowing there wasn't a single word in the world to describe this feeling. A feeling that resembled pure exhilaration … a feeling that resembled …. freedom.

"Amazing, isn't it?" he smiles, raising a brow when she doesn't say anything. That's because unbeknownst to him, Asami was slowly coming to understand this feeling in her heart, realizing that it wasn't the view in front of her that was making her feel this way, but the person right in front of her.

"You like Satoru."

"N-No I don't…"

'Yes you do,' Asami corrects her past self, recalling Shoko's words from earlier and how quick she was to deny the idea, 'I like Satoru.'

"Asami?" Satoru's voice brings her back to reality, the boy beginning to wonder why she was staring at him in such a …. weird …. way. But before he could even question her, she was already nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck, making him go completely red.

"Let's go again," she whispers into his ear, never wanting this night to end.

Gulping, he hesitantly nods, 'I need to tell her,' he thinks to himself, deciding that after all of this was over, he was going to tell her everything. That's because tonight was the night…. the night he'd finally confess...

---

Clutching onto her stomach, Asami wipes the tears forming in the corners of her eyes, laughing at whatever Satoru had said just now, the two sorcerers having returned from their mischievous adventures in the air.

Currently, they were sitting on the rooftop of the skyscraper, talking about the most random of things while staring at the stars above them, certain that they had the best view in the city.

"No way were you scared of clowns!" Asami gapes at him, unable to believe that someone like Satoru could be scared of something so … harmless. Of course, that was just her own personal opinion, for she was raised with clowns all around her.

"Well I wasn't scared, more like creeped out," he defends himself, recalling the first time he'd ever seen a clown, an eight year old him, confused as to why something that resembled the ugliness of a curse, had absolutely no cursed energy.

"Mm," she hums, imagining the younger version of himself trying to decipher what was under the paint and makeup, chuckling at the idea of him trying to have a stare off with a clown, only to end up having a nightmare about it later.

"Once I understood that it was nothing more than makeup and a silly suit, I quickly got over it," he adds, too stubborn to admit that he was indeed once scared of such a trivial thing.

Bringing a hand to her mouth, she laughs, "So that means you wouldn't mind going to the circus with me sometime?" she teases him, not actually expecting him to answer.

"As long as I get to see you perform," he says while shrugging, making her raise a brow.

"Are you being serious?"

He furrows his brows, "Of course I am," he chuckles, "I've been curious to see if you suck or not," he jokes around, resulting in him receiving a smack to the arm.

"Hey!" he yelps in pain, "What was that for?"

Pouting, she crosses her arms, "For even thinking that there's a chance I suck!" she scolds him, taking offense to his joke.

"Ah don't be like that Asami," he pokes her nose, making her roll her eyes, the faint blush on her cheeks telling him that she wasn't actually mad.

"In all seriousness, what are you scared of Gojo Satoru?" she asks him, mocking him by saying his full name, for in her eyes he was always going to be a self-absorbed idiot. Of course, an idiot she foolishly liked, but he didn't have to know that … not yet at least…. Not until she was certain he liked her back.

"Like I said before … nothing. I just can't think of anything in the world that could strike genuine fear in me," he nonchalantly states, the topic of their conversation currently revolving around fears, Satoru claiming that he had none before mentioning his prior "fear" of clowns,

She narrows her eyes at him, "I don't believe you," she says, knowing everyone in the world has a fear of their own, whether big or small.

Looking up at the sky, he sighs, "Well…." he debates whether to continue, knowing that there was something that had originally come to mind, but that he had just been too stubborn to admit outloud.

"Nevermind, it's stupid," he ultimately says, not wanting to be teased for his … unconventional … fear.

Frowning, Asami nudges at his shoulder, knowing he was only being hesitant for the reason being that he didn't want to be poked fun at, "You know you can tell me," she offers him a small smile, hoping that he'd trust her enough to tell her, just like how she had trusted him with one of her own fears.

Avoiding eye contact, he sighs one more time before continuing, "Being weak," he quietly mumbles, expecting to hear her laugh or make some dumb joke about it because God knows he would.

He just couldn't help it, to be weak meant he'd become like the very same people he constantly looked down upon, something which inherently went against his very nature.

Staring at him in silence, Asami remembers a conversation she had with Suguru long ago, when she had first enrolled into the school….

---

Several Months Ago.

"You are so fucking annoying!" Asami stomps down the hallway of the dorm building, Satoru following right behind her as they go at it for the hundredth time this week.

"Yeah, well it's your fault we're getting punished!" he says, making her stop in her tracks, clearly having offended the girl.

"My fault?! The reason the cursed object even fell was because you rudely snatched it out of my hands!" she yells at him, the two of them accidently breaking an "ancient" cursed object earlier due to their childish game of tug-of-war, resulting in Masamichi's punishment of deep-cleaning the campus restrooms sometime this week.

"Because you didn't want to hand it to me!"

She glares at him, "Tch!" she enters the lounge and slams the door in his face, deciding she's had enough of this stupid conversation.

"Hey!" he shouts through the door, his voice coming out muffled.

Rolling her eyes, she scoffs when she sees him through the window, Satoru now sticking his tongue out at her in a childish manner. Pulling down the blinds, she huffs in annoyance when she hears him angrily stomp away, shouting something about her cleaning the boy restrooms.

"Like hell I am," she mutters to herself, jumping in surprise when she hears a voice behind her.

"You two sure are annoying," she turns around to see Suguru sitting on the lounge's couch, a bowl of popcorn in his hands as he watches some kind of action movie.

Stubbornly pouting, she makes her way to him, plopping down beside him as she grabs some of his popcorn and throws it into her mouth, "How so?" she sarcastically asks, making him chuckle.

"Well, what happened this time?" he lowers the volume of his movie, expecting Asami to begin to rant.

"Long story short, we were at the warehouse for some assignment Masamichi gave us, and I had a cursed object in my hand. Gojou-san, being the impatient person he is, snatched it away from my hands before I could hand it over to him, and well…"

"You got mad and tried snatching it back?" Suguru laughs, imagining the scenario in his head.

Asami stubbornly nods, "And so it ended up falling and breaking, but luckily the curse inside was able to be sealed again with a couple of paper talismans. That didn't stop Masamichi from giving us an earful though…" she crosses her arms, ears still ringing from the lecture their sensei had given them.

"I don't get it, I told Gojou-san I'd hand him the object in a bit, but nooooo," she dramatically sings, "He just had to grab it from my hands all rudely! You know, having some manners wouldn't kill him! I mean seriously, you've seen how he talks to his senpai! He has to practically force himself to use an honorific around Masamichi," she shakes her head, "All because he has those stupid eyes, he thinks he can treat everyone around him like crap."

Suguru sighs, "Asami—"

"Nope, I don't want to hear your excuses for him!" she interrupts him, making Suguru roll his eyes.

"I wasn't planning on giving you any excuses Asami," he chuckles, "Satoru is a rude asshole, I think we all know that by now…

She gives him a wary look, waiting to hear the word….

"But…"

She rolls her eyes, thinking, 'There it is.'

"You have to understand that Satoru wasn't raised like us," Suguru says, making Asami arch a brow, for this wasn't one of his usual excuses, such as "He's probably having a bad day."

"What do you mean he wasn't "raised like us," she makes air quotations with her fingers.

"I mean he literally wasn't raised like us," he laughs, repeating his statement from before, "While you and I were lucky enough to spend our early years in a normal society with normal people, doing kid-like things, Satoru didn't…"

Asami remains silent, waiting for Suguru to continue explaining.

"You see, the moment Satoru was born …. the world changed."

Asami laughs, thinking that he was joking, "You're kidding, right?"

"I'm being serious," Suguru says, understanding Asami's skepticism, for he was once in her position as well. It wasn't until Masamichi explained Satoru's upbringing to him, that he and the boy would finally get along.

"When Satoru was born, he was bestowed with a power shamans hadn't seen in over 400 years, also known as the Six Eyes. Because of it, there was an immediate shift in power throughout the jujutsu world, almost like a collective chill going down everyone's spine. Curses had to become stronger while curse users could no longer roam around and do as they pleased. Not only that, but it also caused a power shift between the big three clans, for the Gojo clan were now the ones with all the power."

Asami carefully listens to his words, shocked at how important Satoru's eyes were deemed.

"And maybe it's because you're still new around here, but this society of ours is run by folks who you can say have …. traditional … mindsets. It's a society which strips people of their individuality, and values them by their usefulness and strength. All in all, it's a hierarchy run by men… men who only care about power..."

Gulping, Asami begins to understand where the conversation was going.

"And the Gojo clan, just like the rest of them, only care about power. So when Satoru was born, they didn't see a cute little kid in front of them, instead what they saw was a weapon. It's for that reason that I say Satoru wasn't raised like us," Suguru notices the guilty glimmer in Asami's eyes, "If anything, he was put in a golden cage of expectations and rules the moment he was born."

"Mm, still doesn't explain why he's rude…" Asami mutters, still being as stubborn as ever.

Chuckling, Suguru shakes his head, "It sorta does," he says, "Think about it. Satoru was brought up in an authoritarian family, so it only makes sense that he resents authority and being told what to do. But most importantly, it also explains why he only cares about people's strength. Because at the end of the day, that's what he was raised to value, for being strong is all Satoru knows."

Frowning, Asami gets up from the couch, "Yeah, well he needs to get over himself," she says with spite before walking out the lounge, ignoring the heavy feeling in her heart that was telling her that maybe … just maybe…. Gojo Satoru was more human than she thought.

---

Present Day.

'Of course he's scared of being weak,' Asami thinks to herself while staring at the boy in front of her in wonder, 'Because….'

"Being strong is all Satoru knows." Suguru's words echo in her mind as she begins to understand the connotations of Satoru's fear.

In his eyes, being weak would equate to being nothing, it would mean being an absolute nobody. Even worse, it'd potentially force him to come to the realization that maybe no one around him actually cared for him as a person, but put up with him for the mere fact that he was an extremely valuable weapon. At the end of the day, Gojo Satoru based his self-worth on his strength, and if he didn't have that then...

What the hell was he?

Counting the stars above him, Satoru tries to push off any lingering thoughts he has, deciding that if there ever came a time where he'd be weak, then it wasn't going to be tonight. But damn was it scary to think about …

What the hell would happen if he didn't have his Six Eyes? Would people look at him the same way he looked at them? Would he no longer be the confident Satoru everyone knew? Would people actually like him for his personality? Would someone love him … for him?

Feeling a hand interlock with his own, he looks down to see Asami softly smiling at him, "Strong or weak, you'll always be special to me," she whispers to him, reassuring him of any fears he had.

Leaning her head against his shoulder, Satoru blinks at the girl beside him, knowing that this was his chance….

Gulping, he silently inhales a deep breath of air before continuing, mustering up any courage he had within him, "Asami," he calls out to her, the girl then slowly tilting her head towards him, her sole focus now on him.

"Hm?" she hums, the warm smile she only reserved for him now on her face.

Feeling his heart thump out of his chest, he tries to lock in on his cool facade, ultimately failing to do so, for he could feel her breath trickling down his skin, causing goosebumps to run down his body, "I've um… I've been wanting to um… I've been wanting to tell you something…."

"What is it?" she asks, her own heart now screaming at her that this was it. That this moment here was going to change everything.

"I um…" he stares at her lips, nothing but pure desire now running through his veins.

Staring at each other, no words need to be exchanged in order to understand, their hands gently squeezing each other as they close their eyes, ready to follow their hearts as they slowly come closer to each other, the world having stopped on its axis a long time ago. With their lips now centimeters away, the moon begins to shine extra bright as it watches two lovers come close to having their storybook ending, eager to declare happily ever after.

But unbeknownst to them, the clock strikes twelve …. the fairytale coming to its end ….

BOOM!

Satoru and Asami immediately jolt in surprise when they hear the sound of the rooftop door burst open,

feeling their hearts drop when they see a panting Masamichi holding a limp Shoko in his arms, blood now smeared onto his dress shirt as they notice his fiance applying direct pressure to the young girl's wound.

"Shoko!" Asami quickly runs to Masamichi, a lump forming in her throat as she notices the number of frantic non-jujutsu using guests following right behind them, their outfits covered in stains of blood as they realize they had just escaped death.

"Place her right over there!" Masmaichi's fiance points at some random spot, quickly needing to get to work if Shoko wanted any chance of living.

"What the hell happened to her?!" Satoru asks Masamichi, watching the man's fiance begin to do God knows what to his classmate, convinced that he'd seen an intestine.

Ignoring the boy's question, Masamichi quickly tries to formulate a plan in his head, "Goddamn!" he places his hands onto his forehead out of frustration, feeling as if his head was spinning.

"Is she going to be okay?!" Asami frantically asks Masamichi's fiance, feeling tears well up in the corners of her eyes as she hears Shoko's tiny groans of pain.

Sighing, Masamichi's fiancé remains silent, not wanting to give the girl false hope.

"Answer me!" Asami feels her lip twitch, unaware that this was only the beginning of what would be a tragic tale. Before she can yell anything else, the sound of glass shattering causes her to freeze.

Looking over the ledge, Satoru sees Suguru surfing on one of his flying cursed spirits, having exorcised a Grade 1 curse while quickly reentering the building to exorcise some more. Furrowing his brows, Satoru turns to Masamichi, "What the hell is going on?!"

"There's been a random outbreak of curses," Masamichi says, "Each and every floor of this damn skyscraper is infested with at least one curse!"

"Wait what?" Satoru stares at Masamichi in shock, wondering where the hell all of this was coming from.

"You heard me! And they're not petty curses either! There's already been multiple civilian and shaman casualties! Suguru is currently focusing on the top floors, so I need you to teleport everyone here to ground level and start wiping out the curses at the bottom floors!" He instructs Satoru before turning to the red headed girl, "Asami, you and I will be in charge of exorcising the curses left in the ballroom!"

Asami looks at Shoko, "But—"

"Asami, go," Shoko manages to cough out, slowly raising a hand and channeling some of her cursed energy into the tips of her fingers, a way of telling them that she'd be just fine.

Frowning, Asami nods, luckily having her pouch of throwing knives under her big dress, thus explaining why she had taken so long to come down the stairs earlier when leaving.

"I just don't get how the hell so many curses could randomly appear here?!" Asami asks, regretting wearing a corset, currently feeling as if she couldn't breathe.

"Me neither, but we don't have time to question anything!" Masamichi says, watching Satoru draw a magic circle around the non-jujutsu users, including his fiance and Shoko.

Placing his hands together, Satoru easily teleports the large number of people before glancing at Asami one last time, "You got this," he mouths.

Gulping, Asami lowers her gaze, not exactly feeling too confident. 'Everything is going to be okay,' she tells herself before following Masamichi back inside the building, the four first-year students now all separated, just like how a certain someone wanted them to be….

---

1 Hour Before.

Putting out her cigarette, Yua Aiuchi, dubbed the Enchantress of the West, places her left eye to her telescope, "Amazing," she whispers to herself, watching her future victim get spun around like she was in some kind of magical fairytale.

Hearing the door to her hotel room open, Yua doesn't bother to turn around, already knowing who it was.

"T-The higher ups are going to be enacting their plan soon," the middleman hesitantly enters the room.

"Is that so?" she chuckles, trying to recall this plan of theirs, "Remind me…" she looks at the man behind her, clearly having forgotten his name.

"G-Gin," he says for her, a blush appearing on his cheeks when he gets a good look of how she's dressed, her silk kimono-style robe now hanging off of her shoulders, emphasising a certain … feature … of hers.

"Ah right, Gin," she laughs, "Tell me Gin, what exactly is it that they're going to do again?" she scratches her platinum-dyed hair, not exactly having the best memory.

"The representatives of the three big clans have agreed to release some of their toughest curses they use for in-house training on every floor. They said that the students' sensei will most likely split up all four students in an effort to reduce casualties," Gin explains, watching a sly smirk begin to form on Yua's face.

"Mm, I see," she continues to analyze what's in front of her, wanting to make sure that she wouldn't have any miscalculations, "I need that girl gone," she suddenly says, confusing Gin.

"W-What girl?"

Yua closes a single eye and points to a girl in a black 60's style dress, "That one," she licks her lips, "She has the reverse cursed technique and well…." she covers her mouth, trying to suppress her laugh, "I can't have her healing my target."

"B-But how will we do that?" Gin asks.

Sighing, Yua rolls her eyes, "Tch, I don't know. Tell one of those old pruny men to make sure one of their curses attack her," she scowls, "I'm not getting paid enough to do all their thinking, all I know is that if they want a successful execution, then they need that girl to be out of the picture," her voice begins to rise, running a chill down Gin's spine.

"Okay then," he gulps, before beginning to exit the room.

"Wait!"

He stops in his tracks.

"Make sure the stakes with the talisman are in place for the curtain," she reminds him.

"A-About that…."

She raises a brow, "What?"

"The higher ups said that because it's such a specially made curtain, it'll have a time limit of exactly one hour," he says, "The moment those minutes are up, the veil will—"

"I know what it means you stupid idiot," she mutters, "And don't worry one hour is more than enough time for me to get the job done," she says, watching the man nod.

"Good luck," he says before walking out, leaving Yua to herself.

Turning back around in her seat, Yua places her eye back onto the telescope, smiling when she sees the two special-grade sorcerers leaning against the rail, "Isn't love such a wonderful thing?" she mutters to herself, the tips of her fingers tingling at the thought of destroying something so … precious.

---

Watching Gojo Satoru enter the lobby of the building, Yua knows that it's time, happy to see that things were going according to plan. Making a two finger symbol with her hand, she chants the following phrase….

"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."

Meanwhile, Masamichi and Asami walk down the corridor of the ballroom, eyes widening when they hear a familiar sound.

Gloop. Gloop.

The veil quickly begins to form around the three tallest skyscrapers in Shiodome District, creating the arena for what would be an upcoming bloody battle.

Clenching his jaw, Masamichi curses out loud, "Damn it! Just as I thought…."

"What?" Asami frowns, looking out the window and seeing that the moon and stars were no longer in the sky, for there was now nothing but a pitch black sky.

"A curse-user is behind this," he states, immediately beginning to wonder what the conditions of the curtain were. Looking down through the window, he's thankful to see that his fiance and Shoko were no longer in the area, the remaining non-jujutsu users also having made their way out before the veil could fully form.

"S-So what do we do?" Asami feels her heart pound, for this was going to be her first time ever facing a curse-user.

Sighing, Masamichi shakes his head before eyeing the grand doors to the ballroom, "We fight," he mutters while placing his hands against the golden handlesets, "Asami…" he says her name, knowing that once he opened those doors, there was a possibility that things were going to … change...

"Yes Masamichi-sensei?" the girl stares at him with the naive eyes she's always had.

"When I first met you, I told you that this world of ours was a long road of death…" he pauses, "And you said that you didn't care, that all you were seeking was to no longer be afraid of death…"

"Yeah, I did…" she gives him a wary look, wondering where this was going.

"So Asami, I need you to be unafraid of death right now," he says, a cold chill then running down her spine. With the doors then opening, Asami feels her blood run cold, staring at what's in front of her in complete utter …. disgust.

Not only were there multiple dead bodies on the floor, but there were curses gnawing and chewing at their limbs, fighting for their own pieces like a flock of vultures, "T-Tanaka-sensei?" Asami recognizes the squared glasses one of the curses were sucking on, looking down to see the body of her esteemed science teacher.

With the curses now looking at them, Asami begins to recognize some of the other bodies on the ground, coming face to face with a reality she had originally been so naive to.

"Let's get started," Masamichi says, not wanting to give her the time to process everything, as she could do that some other day.

Taking a deep breath in, Asami tries to ignore the uneasy feeling in her chest, the one that was telling her that she needed to run and never look back. She tries to reason to herself that this was normal, that death is normal.

'This is a part of the job,' she tells herself while slashing through her first curse, surprisingly taking things better than expected….

Summoning his puppets, Masamichi exorcises the grade 2 curses with ease, wondering when the hell this curse-user was going to reveal themselves and what exactly their goal is.

'Hopefully Satoru and Suguru have their side of things under control,' he thinks to himself, trying his best to feel confident that they weren't in too much trouble. They were the strongest after all….

---

Wiping his hands, Suguru breathes a sigh of relief when he sees that he's exorcised the last curse of the floor he was on, his assigned areas now curse free.

'Now to go help Asami and Masamichi-sensei,' he presses the elevator button, noticing that it wasn't immediately glowing. Pressing it again, he quirks an eyebrow when the button remains unlit.

"Hm," he pulls out his flip phone, seeing that he has absolutely no signal. That could only mean that there was no electricity or….

He walks towards the end of the hallway in order to look out the window, finally noticing the curtain in the sky.

'Curse user…' he frowns, wondering who would be stupid enough to try and launch an attack on the entire school while quickly making his way to the emergency staircase.

Pushing the door open, he's immediately met with a repelled force, resembling that of an electric shock. Yelping in pain, his eyebrows draw together, "What the…" he mumbles, "I can't…" he tries again, met with the same resisting force, "... get out."

Summoning a low-level curse, he tries to see if it can leave, only to be met with the same result. Refusing to accept that he was stuck here, he tries to get it to escape through the window, the curse once again meeting the same fate.

"Damn it," he mutters to himself, now in a position where he knew he couldn't do anything. 'Whoever this curse-user is, isn't as stupid as I thought they were…' he tightens his fist, as unbeknowst to him, this curtain was an extremely special commissioned curtain.

A curtain that in exchange for keeping any jujutsu users (minus the caster of the curtain) within not only the building, but floors they were in, would allow Asami Okada to exit and move through floors as she pleased. But once she exited, there was no coming back inside.

Either way, Yua Aiuchi wasn't worried about the possibility of Asami reaching her classmates' floors, for she was well on her way to the ballroom floor, ready to finish her job.

---

Meanwhile…

"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."

The curses around Satoru immediately begin to implode on impact of the technique, the boy having exorcised each and every one in less than 5 minutes. But sadly, in those five minutes, the curtain had already been cast…

Walking towards the lobby exit, Satoru looks down at the dead bodies around him, feeling a certain level of sympathy for the deceased shamans around him, 'If only they had been stronger…' he frowns, wondering if things would've turned out different had he arrived earlier.

He also begins to ask himself how this could've all happened, and where the hell did these curses come from. Honestly, he would've understood if it had been a random two or three, as curses were sometimes attracted to strong cursed energy, almost like a mosquito and its attraction to light. But to have an actual outbreak of them, with a curse appearing on every floor, well that just wasn't normal…

Intuitively, he knows that this must be the work of a curse-user. What his question was, is why? Why attack a ballroom full of sorcerers? What made this person so confident that they could succeed? What was their goal in all this?

Stopping in his tracks, Satoru takes a closer look at the bodies, realizing that something was rather…. off. This time, rather than looking at the bodies as a collective whole, he focuses on seeing them as individuals, jaw clenching when he takes note of something.

'None of these sorcerers are a part of the big three clans….' Satoru recalls the different faces he'd seen at the ballroom, having secretly observed them while Asami was babbling about some new series she'd been seeing on TV. In total there had been exactly four lower branch members of the Gojo clan, what looked to be 3 members of the Zenin clan, and 4 members of the Kamo clan.

In fact, now that he thought about it, the only people who could have access to such curses were them,

for they had training rooms full of curses such as these.

'And it's no coincidence that none of them are here…' he begins to slowly put the puzzle pieces of this situation together, each and every dot connecting one by one.

'But why? Why would the big three enact this plan…' he gulps, for his throat had now gone dry, 'Unless they were following orders from the higher ups…'

Satoru immediately shakes his head, believing the idea to be stupid. No way would the higher ups ever contract a curse user, nor would they ever be willing to sacrifice a number of their working shamans… right?

'Not unless they want their hands clean of something…' Satoru feels his heart drop.

"The higher ups are planning on executing Asami."

Masamichi's words ring in his head, the boy finally realizing what this was all about.

"Asami," he whispers, feeling as if his blood had gone cold. Quickly running towards the exit, Satoru pushes the rotating doors of the lobby, preparing to make his way back to the ballroom in order to help Asami.

ZAP!

He immediately gets pushed back, only then noticing the curtain outside, "Huh…" he tries to run out again, only to be met with the same magnetic force, almost like his infinity in a sense. Deciding he wasn't going to waste his time by trying a third time, he prepares to teleport by making the technique's symbol.

"No way," he whispers in disbelief, for his technique was only allowing him to teleport throughout the lobby he was currently in, thus trapping him like a bird in a cage.

Beginning to panic, Satoru tries to look for another exit, meeting the same result over and over, "Damn it!" he runs a hand through his hair before raising a single finger.

"Cursed Technique…" the destructive red force begins to form at the tip of his finger, the boy now preparing to destroy the whole floor if it meant that he could get out of here.

'Wait!' He stops himself from finishing the technique, knowing he wasn't thinking rationally, 'I'm at the bottom floor, meaning if I use my red technique, I'll only destroy the infrastructure of the building,' he sighs, recognizing that his technique would only do more harm than good.

'What to do, what to do—'

The floor below him suddenly begins to shake, debris then falling from the sides of the building, its impact on the ground telling him that it had fallen from one of the top floors. Which could only mean that…

Satoru continuously kicks the invisible shield, trying his best not to think about what could possibly be occurring in the floors above him. All he knew was that he was going to get out of here …. he had to ...

---

"That's the last one," Asami stabs her knife through the final curse, she and Masamichi having successfully cleared out the ballroom.

Double checking everything, Masamichi sighs, "We need to regroup with the boys as soon as possible," he says, the two now walking towards the exit, "If we can all be at the same place at once, then whoever this curse user is, will stand—"

ZOOM!

"Ah!" Masamichi hisses in pain, quickly grabbing onto the side of his arm as blood begins to spew out of the newly formed gash.

"Masamichi-se—"

Shink. Shink Shink.

Asami's eyes widen as she quickly dodges the bladed steel fan that was coming her way, the weapon having curved back after its attack on Masamichi, almost like a boomerang. Quickly pulling out a knife, Asami hears the sound of someone clapping.

"Such good reflexes," she turns to see a platinum-haired woman standing on the top of the grand staircase, two fans in her hand, one of them having Masamichi's blood on its blades, "Not often is it that I miss a target, but," she chuckles, "I wouldn't have expected anything less from a girl like you."

'Target…' Masamichi groans in pain, understanding the connotations to her words, while also recognizing the cursed energy of the woman, "Asami," he manages to say the young girl's name, "...Run."

"W-What?" Asami furrows her brows.

Making a heart-like motion with her hands, Yua smirks at the man's words, "Cursed Technique: Red String of Fate," she swipes her hand to the side, Masamichi then being thrown against the ball room.

"Masamichi-sensei!" Asami tries to run towards Masamichi, only for him to be slammed across the other side of the ballroom, "W-What the…" she stops in her tracks, now in a frantic state.

Yua continues to laugh, sadistically enjoying the girl's shocked expression, "Maybe if you squint your eyes you'll see it, but there's a red string connecting your sensei and I right now," she explains, beginning to reveal her cards.

"The moment my fan grazed against his skin, the tiny thread was formed, meaning I can throw him like this," she points her finger upward, effectively throwing Masamichi to the ceiling, "Like that," she points downward, throwing him to ground, "And as for the fate aspect of my technique…"

Yua opens one of her bladed fans before making a pulling motion with her hands, "Back to me," Masamichi's body flies over to her, the woman then stabbing him in the stomach before finally letting him drop to the ground, the man no longer attached to her string.

Lips now parted, Asami tries to process what she just saw, desperately wanting to believe that this was some kind of nightmare, "M-Masamichi-sensei—" her voice cracks, fixated on what looked to be the dead body in front of her.

Slowly going down the stairs, Yua wipes her hands in a smug fashion, "Don't worry he's not dead, I think," she mockingly chuckles, "But now that we've got him and your other friends out the way, I can finally get started on executing you."

"W-What are you talking about?" Asami begins to take a couple of steps back, feeling an intense shiver of fear run down the back of her neck, still in a state of shock over what she'd just witnessed.

"You heard me," the woman says, wasting no time in throwing one of her fans to the young girl, Asami luckily dodging it out of natural reflex. Throwing her second fan, Yua tries to get the girl into a lose-lose situation, knowing that the first fan she threw would be turning back.

Asami, who was aware of her vulnerable position, perfectly times her jump in order to give herself a chance to run. Quickly hiding behind a pillar, Asami lifts up her dress and pulls out a handful of knives, mentally cursing herself for wearing such a large gown.

At this point she was hyperventilating and trying to think of some kind of plan, her mind racing with a load of things as she hears the woman's footsteps, 'Masamichi's not dead. Shoko's not dead. All you need to do is go find Satoru or Suguru, and you'll be fine. They'll know what to do,' she tries to reassure herself, tears brimming the corners of her eyes as the image of Masamichi remains in her mind.

Hearing the woman's footsteps come to a halt, Asami uses the opportunity to say something, "L-Look, I don't want to hurt you!" Her voice echoes across the walls of the ballroom, her hands now shaking as she tries to sense the woman's cursed energy in an effort to locate her.

Yua's laugh can be heard from afar, "Just who the hell do you think I am? Your cries for mercy aren't going to inspire any sympathy from me!" the pillar Asami is standing behind suddenly breaks from above, the girl quickly forming a shield of cursed energy above her head as she begins to run towards the exit.

'Where the hell is—'

Asami feels herself get kicked to the stomach, her body then getting flown to the grand stairs. As a result, she feels an excruciating sharp pain in her back. Groaning in pain, she knows that she's knocking on death's door, the room now spinning as her head begins to throb in pain.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

The sound of Yua's incoming fan forces Asami to get up, the girl immediately blocking the steel fan with her own knife and redirecting its course of direction, "Why are you doing this?" Asami asks, panting for breath.

"Because I'm getting paid," Yua answers quite simply, grabbing her spinning fan from the air while carefully observing the young girl in front of her, "I have to admit though, I do feel quite bad. You looked like you were having the time of your life tonight with Prince Charming. But sadly, every princess has her own wicked witch," she smirks.

'Getting paid?' Asami shakes her head, deciding that she could focus on that some other day, 'This woman is not only fast, but she's strong as well. She also has a cursed technique that's clearly lethal, meaning I need to get rid of those fans of hers if I want any chance of walking out of this alive…'

Cracking her neck, Asami gets into her fighting stance, understanding that she was going to have to fight tooth and nail if she wanted to defeat this woman.

"Asami, I need you to be unafraid of death right now," is what Masamichi had told her earlier, and she can't help but wonder if this is what he had actually been referring to, for there was now a chance she'd end up dead in the next couple of minutes.

"So, you're finally done playing nice I see," Yua eyes the girl while the two walk in circles around each other, noticing the certain glint Asami had in her eyes. A glint that said she was ready to fight.

With sweat now trickling down her forehead, Asami tightens the grip she has on her knives, "You bet I am," she pounces at the woman, steel immediately clashing with steel.

Careful not to get slashed, Asami tries her best to stay on the offensive, knowing that the moment she switched to defense, it'd only become ten times harder to get rid of those fans. And until she got rid of them, only then would she focus on performing a cursed technique of her own.

Swiping her sharpened fans at the young girl, Yua scowls at how light the red head is on her feet, even with a heavy dress on. Not only that, but the girl seemed to be quite flexible, having landed several kicks to her face already while also backflipping her way out of counter attacks.

Swoosh!

"Tch," Yua feels the leaking blood on her face, Asami having successfully slashed her on the cheek. Tired of being on the defensive, Yua purposely throws a fan past the girl's shoulder while attacking her with one, knowing Asami would once again have to worry about what's not only in front, but also behind her.

"Damn it," Asami mutters to herself, struggling to hold Yua's fan with one hand while also trying to stop the second one that was on it's way from behind.

'Think Asami, think,' Asami notices the chandeliers above her that she had been fawning over earlier, formulating a small plan in her head. Kneeing the woman in the stomach, Asami uses the opportunity to run, avoiding both incoming fans.

Running up the grand stairs, Asami uses her momentum to leap onto one of the chandeliers, using it as a personal shield for herself while throwing knives at the woman's legs, hoping she'd be able to get her to stop.

'Minus those knives of hers, this brat hasn't used an ounce of her own cursed energy while I'm almost out of my own,' Yua glares at Asami from below, barely dodging her knives while also noticing how slowly her fans were beginning to move through the air, a sign that she was running out of cursed energy.

'Time is ticking as well….' Yua tries to formulate a plan of her own, smiling when she indeed does.

Watching the platinum-haired woman run across the ballroom floor, Asami's eyes widen when she sees her begin to rapidly move her fans up and down. 'Oh no…' Assami thinks to herself, tightly holding onto the tubing of the glass chandelier she was standing on.

"Cursed Technique: Lover's Kiss," Yua blows air into her fan, resulting in a strong gust of scented air to release, breaking every glass made thing in the ballroom, including the chandelier.

Falling off the chandelier, Asami's dress rips in the process, not that it really mattered. By now, her once pastel pink dress was a grimy tan color, the edges of the skirt having splatters of blood on it, all due to the puddles of it on the floor. Not only that, but the soles of her heels were now sticky as a result of stepping on so much blood.

Muttering curses to herself, Asami roughly lands on the floor, quickly rolling to the side when she sees a foot incoming her way. Getting up from the floor, Asami's nose then suddenly begins to uncontrollably twitch, sniffing what seemed to be the scent of floral perfume.

Feeling herself become lightheaded, Asami begins to understand the basis of the woman's technique. Not only did it cause a strong gust of wind, but it also made anyone within the radius succumb to the effects of the perfumed scent.

'Damn it, I need to buy myself time,' Asami begins to run, knowing Yua was following right behind her. Feeling a sharp pain in her stomach, Asami knows that the drowsy feeling that's overtaking her is a second effect of the cursed technique, the aching feeling in her muscles also causing her to wince in pain with every movement she makes.

Closing a single eye, Yua begins to focus her aim on the girl's legs, ready to declare checkmate….

Whoosh!

Her fan manages to scrape the girl's arm, making her wince and fall in pain.

"Gotcha!" Yua begins to make the motion of her cursed technique, using her final bits of energy into forming the technique.

Crawling on her knees, Asami ignores the spewing blood coming out of her arm, hiding behind a second pillar, knowing that her death was now imminent. Clutching onto her arm, Asami grimaces as she feels an excruciating pain spread throughout her body, feeling as if every inch of her body was on fire.

Throwing her head back against the pillar, Asami hears Yua sharpen her fans by pressing their edges together, a loud screeching noise then filling the room.

'There has to be some kind of loophole in her technique,' Asami pants for breath, knowing her death was now imminent, 'Because every cursed technique has its own faults,' she tells herself, remembering what Masamichi had taught her on the first day of school, 'But what could it be…'

"Cursed Technique…."

Asami closes her eyes, trying to think of the mechanics behind the technique, 'The red string of fate comes from that myth that soulmates have an invisible thread in between them, in which they're destined to meet no matter what, and in this case her technique does exactly that, but….'

A flicker of light appears in Asami's eyes, 'That string goes both ways…' she gets up from the ground, finally understanding the technique.

"...Red String of Fate," Yua makes her infamous pulling motion, expecting to see a flying Asami come her way, so when she in fact doesn't….

'No…' Yua's eyes widen in shock when she sees Asami tightly holding onto the pillar, using every last bit of strength to stand her ground.

"When you were explaining your technique, you purposely left out the part where your opponent needs to be in an extremely weakened state, thus making it seem like you could just throw anyone around," Asami secures her footing, ready to play an intense game of tug of war, "Masamichi-sensei had already expelled almost all of his cursed energy when you hit him. Not only that, but you got him off guard…"

"Tch," Yua glares at the girl, using all of her strength to pull at the string, 'Damn it, the brat is stronger than me!' Yua begins to lose her footing, grinding her teeth against each other as she tries to overpower the girl.

'Focus Asami, focus,' Asami bites her lip, knowing victory was close, 'Remember what Satoru taught you,' she begins to channel her cursed energy into her hands, making sure it was flowing evenly throughout her body, 'Think of your mind, body, and soul as one…'

Making a final tugging motion with her hands, Asami finally manages to pull Yua towards her, landing a hard right punch to her face, before beginning to swing her around by the very same string. Spinning in circles, Asami doesn't particularly aim for anywhere, simply throwing her to a random wall of the ballroom.

But what Asami didn't know was that the string could only extend so far, meaning right as she threw Yua, she herself was thrown to the wall. Landing on Yua's body, the two end up breaking the wall and landing onto the balcony Satoru and Asami had been standing on earlier, the string finally breaking.

With the sound of steel sliding against the floor, Asami quickly gets up to see Yua'a fans now laying far away from her, using the opportunity to try and run towards them in hopes of destroying them. Running as fast as she can, she prepares to jump over Yua's limp body, knowing that the woman could get up any second.

Sensing Asami's footsteps, Yua musters up every last bit of remaining strength she has to raise her foot.

'I got th—' Asami feels her foot get caught up in something, thus falling to the ground, her jaw slightly cracking at the impact, "Gah," she groans in pain while Yua crawls towards her fans, successfully managing to grab them before getting kicked to the face.

Managing to slice Asami's thigh, the girl falls down to the ground again, this time Yua getting on top of her. Pressing her fan against Asami's neck, the red headed girl kicks Yua in the stomach, successfully pushing her off while breaking the glass of rail beside her.

Eyes widening, Yua sees just how close she is to falling, enough that if she rolled over even once she'd be well on her way to the ground. Pulling Asami by the hair, Yua slams the girl's head onto the concrete floor, forcing her to switch positions with her.

With the two now struggling for dominance, Asami can feel her hair dangling off the edge of the building, trying her very best to regain control despite her body telling her that she was at her limit. Honestly from there it becomes a big old blur, for Asami wasn't sure whose fault it was….

All she knew was that one moment she was on the edge of a 66 story skyscraper and the next she was falling out of it. And though she had already fallen off this building more than once tonight, this time it was different. This time she wasn't with Satoru…

Closing her eyes, Asami allows herself to enjoy the feeling of the gusting wind racing throughout her body, knowing that in a couple of seconds she'd either be dead or close to death, 'You have to do something,' Asami tells herself, watching the number of windows pass her by one by one, a sign that she was coming closer and closer to the ground by the second.

Taking a deep breath, a part of Asami just wants to let herself fall, convinced that maybe if she did this night would be over, that maybe she'd wake up in bed, panting for breath, 'No, this is real,' she reminds herself, each and every minute of this was all too real, 'Meaning I have to keep fighting,' she begins to channel her cursed energy into her legs while twisting her body around from it's falling position.

Now facing a smirking Yua, Asami sees the woman throw her fan towards her as the two jujutsu-users begin to diagonally "run" down the skyscraper, Yua taking advantage of the wind's speed to make her fan move ten times faster.

Throwing her knives in return, Asami begins to use the friction of the window to slide down, quickly beginning to close the distance between Yua and her, the pavement of the ground only a couple of stories away from them now.

Scowling, Yua catches her fan, preparing to perform her Lover's Kiss technique as a way to soften the landing for herself. Noticing Yua's movements, Asami clenches her jaw, "No you don't!" The red headed girl channels all of her cursed energy into her feet while completely separating herself from the window, now falling at full speed.

BOOM!

Satoru watches the pavement in front of him explode, nothing but dirt and debris outside the lobby as his desperate kicking comes to a sudden halt, 'What the…' he stares at the see-through door in shock, suddenly sensing Asami's cursed energy.

With the debris slowly disappearing, he feels his heart drop when he sees a limping Asami, her dress now completely torn while blood drips down her face. Frantically bashing at the door, he tries to grab her attention, "ASAMI!" he yells.

Heaving for breath, Asami's unable to hear the boy, too focused on the woman who was now getting up from the ground, dirt and blood now all over her as she finds herself heavily injured.

Vision blurring, Asami could feel the blood oozing out of her head, 'I'm exhausted,' Asami quietly chuckles to herself, wondering if the curse-user in front of her was tired as well. Based on the horribly concealed bags under her eyes, Asami could only assume she was, 'Because curse-users are humans too…' Asami remembers Suguru's words from not too long ago, wondering if he and Satoru were alright.

Coughing up blood, Asami frowns when she sees Yua stand up on her two feet, throwing her fans to the side and pulling out something from behind her robe….

Two golden Sai Knives.

"To hell with those stupid fans," she gives Asami a tired smile while licking the blood off her lips, "All I need are these to kill you!" she begins to hysterically laugh, coughing up blood in the process.

"Please … just stop…" Asami whispers with a weak voice, asking herself why the woman was pushing herself beyond her limits.

But what Asami didn't know was that Yua Aiuchi was a survivor. A woman who once fought tooth and nail for her own freedom years ago, having to kill the man she once thought loved her in order to protect herself. And maybe it was the sight of seeing a happy Asami and Satoru that reminded her of that prior love, but all Yua knew was that she wanted Asami dead. Because like hell was she going to have her freedom taken away by someone so … naive.

Spinning the Sai knives in her hands, Yua smirks at the young girl in front of her, watching as she performs her replenish technique, sensing the surge in cursed energy from her, "No I don't think I will," she immediately strikes at a wincing Asami, the red head still recuperating from the massive headache she'd receive, this time seeing the image of a lake.

Blocking the Sai knives in Yua's hands, Asami attempts to stab at the woman's legs, hoping it'd be enough to finally bring her down. Dodging the attack, Yua successfully slashes at the girl's uninjured arm, only able to do so due to the fact that the golden Sai knives were far more superior to Asami's throwing knives, meaning it was easier to overpower the girl's strength this time around.

Ducking Yua's swing, Asami backflips her way out of the predicament she's in while trying to think of a way that she can get her hands onto the woman's forehead, so that she could perform a cursed technique of her own.

Reading each other's moves, Yua and Asami go for several minutes without hitting each other, the two putting in their very best effort into not only winning, but surviving.

Swinging at Asami's leg, Yua manages to get the young girl onto the ground. Moving her head from side to side, Asami barely dodges the careless stabs that were coming from the woman who had clearly lost her mind at this point.

"Die! Die! Die!" Yua continues to thrust her knives up and down.

Timing the pattern of her movements, Asami manages to find a gap in her stabs, forcefully pushing the woman off of her before kicking her in the face, sending her flying into the building across.

Giving her no time to recover, Asami runs towards the building and grabs the woman by her leg, spinning her around just like she had earlier. Throwing her across the street, Asami stares at the woman's limp body, believing herself to have won.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Asami's eyes widen when she hears the sound of a fan coming her way. But by the time she could even attempt to turn around, the blade of the fan was already inches deep into the scar behind her neck … the one she had received that night at the circus … the one that had never fully recovered...

Falling to her knees, Asami immediately hisses in pain, quickly taking out the bladed fan in her neck. Crying in pain, she clutches onto her neck while hearing the sound of Yua's maniacal laughter.

"Did you really think I would just throw away my main weapon, just like that?" Yua laughs, remembering how she had purposely thrown only one fan to the ground while quickly hiding her second one behind her robe, "I have to say though, you were quite the fighter," the older woman says from where she stands, willing to put her pride aside in order to acknowledge the girl's skills.

Closing a single eye, Yua focuses her aim on the girl's head, "But you just weren't good enough," she throws the sai knife in her right hand as Asami looks up, the following events all happening in slow motion.

"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."

Yua's eyes widen in shock as she's hit with a destructive force, the last thing she sees before crashing into another building being the one and only Gojo Satoru, while Asami now holds the golden sai knife with her hands, the sharp edge being only a mere centimeter away from her eye.

"Satoru," Asami whispers in disbelief, unable to believe what she was seeing. Above her was Suguru and Masamichi flying on a curse, their sensei luckily alive and … partially … well.

Luckily, in the midst of all their fighting, Masamichi was able to crawl himself to cover while also summoning one of his "healing" cursed corpses to tend to his wound, the doll managing to stop the bleeding before it became lethal.

"Go find cover Asami," Satoru says, frowning at the girl's disheveled appearance, for she was still in a state of shock. Crouching down, he slowly lowers the hand that's holding the sai knife, "Asami," he whispers, "You're fine now."

"But—"

"Just leave everything to me," he says, giving her a small comforting smile.

Hesitantly nodding, Asami gets up, limping to the side while watching Satoru begin to calmly walk toward the destroyed building.

Looking up at the sky, Yua feels her hands shake as she gets up from the rubble, "H-How? The curtain is still…" she suddenly remembers how she had interrupted Gin, not allowing him to fully explain the limitation of the curtain.

Because if she had then she would've heard him say….

"The higher ups said that because it's such a specially made curtain, it'll have a time limit of exactly one hour. The moment those minutes are up, the barrier will not break, but the specially made rules for it will. The reason for this is because the mission is taking place in the city, meaning the higher ups want this to be as covert as possible."

The hour had been up the second she threw the knife.

"So you're the one they hired," Satoru stares at the platinum haired woman in front of him, cracking his knuckles as he reads her levels of cursed energy using his Six Eyes, "Yua Aiuchi, right? I've heard about you…"

Yua runs a hand through her hair while staring at the eyes of the boy, "That would be me, lover boy," she mocks him, trying to keep her cool composure, "And you must be the boy with the Six Eyes," she adds, pulling her fans out.

Scoffing, he shakes his head, not at all feeling nervous for the upcoming fight, "You practically got your ass handed to you by Asami, so what makes you think you can try and fight me?" he taunts her, Suguru now standing behind him as he's just returned from placing Masamichi under cover.

Carefully observing the boys' appearances, she smirks, "Call it a gut feeling…" she says.

"How about we just get this over with and you voluntarily turn yourself in," Suguru says, returning the same smirk.

"Mm I don't think so," she throws her fans at them, starting the intense battle.

---

Watching the fight from where she sits, Asami hears Masamichi groan in pain as he struggles to keep his eyes open, still wanting to make sure his students are okay despite them being special-grade status.

"Don't move too much Masamichi-sensei. You'll only worsen your injury," Asami says, trying to motion at him to sit down.

"I can't," he mumbles, still feeling dizzy, "I need to go and help them," he says, confusing Asami. What would Satoru and Suguru need help on?

"But—"

"At this rate they won't win," he tries to get up again, immediately falling back onto the sidewalk.

"Masamichi-sensei, it's Satoru and Suguru we're talking about here! Of course they're going to win! They're the strongest!" she reminds him, convinced that the man had lost his mind.

"They're focusing on trying to capture her, rather than trying to kill her," Masamichi mutters, making Asami's heart drop.

"W-Wait what?"

"I saw your fight with her Asami…"

She blinks at him in confusion.

"You had several opportunities to go in for the kill, and you didn't, something I'm sure she was quick to pick up on. It's why no matter how badly beaten she was, she still wouldn't admit defeat. All because she knows that none of you are trying to kill her," he says, clutching onto his wound, "The only way to defeat a curse-user like her is tokill her."

Gulping, Asami stares at the ground in shock, "T-That's okay," she says, remembering the words of a certain someone.

"So you're telling me you'd have no problem killing a curse-user?"

"Nope, wouldn't even hesitate," Satoru says.

"Satoru can do it," she says, choosing to believe in the boy, "He said it himself."

Remaining silent, Masamichi continues to watch the fight, only confirming his theory when he sees Satoru purposely miss a killing strike.

"Asami, I need you to go join the fight," Masamichi says.

"H-Huh?"

"Just go Asami, even if you're on the sidelines," he instructs her, his tone telling her that he was being serious.

Getting off the ground, Asami bites her lip, "O-Okay, but—"

BOOM!

Asami turns to see Satoru flying towards a building, eyes widening at the sight, "What the…"

'Damn it, my infinity is wearing off!' Satoru scowls while attempting to teleport himself to the ground, 'It means I'm burning out!' he curses to himself, knowing he couldn't perform another red or blue technique as his limit for them was still once a day.

Exorcising Suguru's flying curse with her fan, Yua successfully makes the boy fall to the floor while hopping off the building Satoru had kicked her into, slamming onto the curse-manipulation user just how Asami had done to her earlier, adrenaline now flowing.

Kicking him in the face, Yua hears him groan in pain, knowing she's bought herself time for a one-on-one fight with the Six Eyes, 'Where is he….'

SLAM!

Asami gives the woman a surprise roundabout kick to the face. Yua immediately counter attacks with a swing to Asami's legs, forcing her to fall to the ground.

"Ha! If it isn't you again! Thought you'd be happy with Prince Charming coming to save you," Yua laughs, now having the upper hand. Placing her hands onto the girl's throat, Yua begins to suffocate the girl, "Maybe I can receive my commission for tonight!"

Gasping for air, Asami attempts to grab the sai knife from her holster, feeling her life slip away as her eyes begin to bulge out their sockets, "S-Satoru," she tries to pry the woman's fingers away, beginning to lose consciousness.

"Don't go crying for him now!"

SPLAT!

Yua's face meets the cold concrete floor, Satoru having given her the final kick for the night. With her blood now splattered onto the floor, Yua looks up to see a towering Satoru.

"It's over," he says, looking at the woman with nothing but disgust.

Coughing her lungs out, Asami continues to gasp for breath, now feeling as if the world was spinning. Looking up, she sees Satoru and Yua, recognizing the look on the woman's face. It was the look of someone who simply wasn't going to give up.

"K-Kill her," Asami manages to spit out, understanding what Masamichi had meant when he said that the only way to defeat her would be by killing her. And if there was one person who could do it … it was Satoru, that she knew.

"W-what?" Satoru feels his heart thumping out his chest, bewildered by Asami's words.

"You need to kill her, " Asami slides him a throwing knife before beginning to cough up blood.

"You heard her," Yua weakly mutters, "Kill me."

Picking up the knife, Satoru feels his heart thump out of his chest, only then realizing that he'd gone the whole night without his sunglasses. And it was because of that, that he could sense everything.

He could sense the blood flowing through the woman's veins. He could sense the rapidly beating heart in her chest, which was currently pumping life into her. He could sense the tiny goosebumps that were crawling on her skin, telling him that she was scared. And most importantly ….

He could sense just how human she was….

Or so he thought.

Because in those small seconds of contemplation, Yua sees them.

She sees the eyes that simply weren't ready to kill.

It was what she'd seen earlier, and it was what she was seeing now.

"S-Satoru," Asami's voice trembles as she watches the boy stay still, his own fingers now shaking as he holds the knife in his hands, "W-What are you waiting for? You have to—"

And from there everything happens so …. slowly.

From Yua grabbing her second and final Sai knife and pushing Satoru out the way, to Asami frantically trying to crawl backwards as she watches the woman lunge at her. Everything just happened so slowly.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The knife in the woman's heart begins to leak blood from it's exit point, but the thing is…

That's not what kills her…

What kills her is Asami's fourth and final technique…

---

1 Week Ago.

"Well we have to do something…" Satoru stares at the view in front of them, the sun slowly beginning to set.

"I know Satoru, I know…" Masamichi sighs while crossing his arms, "By the way, what's this fourth technique of Asami's?" he asks, realizing his students never ended up demonstrating it.

"Oh right," Satoru nervously laughs, "It's a bit complicated."

"I'm listening," Masamichi says.

"You can't see it, but Asami has a black fog surrounding her at all times," Satoru states out of nowhere, shocking Masamichi.

Masamchi knits his brows together, "What the hell do you mean by a black fog?"

"Literal black fog," Satoru feigns a chuckle, "When I first met her, my six eyes surprisingly weren't able to identify it. I personally think it's because it's so ingrained into her cursed energy that my eyes must've looked past it. It wasn't until she used it at the warehouse that I was able to identify it and establish its presence. Now I can see it around her all the time, but like I said it's really faint."

"I don't get it…" Masamichi side eyes him.

"Think of it as a shield, almost like my infinity in a sense," he says, not surprised by Masamichi's reaction, "It's why you felt drowsy that day you visited her in the hospital. She was scared of you so it involuntarily made her "turn on" the shield, almost like it wanted to make its presence known," he air quotes.

"And what the hell does this fog of hers do?"

"Mmmm," Satoru tries to think of the easiest way to explain it, "Like I said, it's pretty complicated, but first let me ask you this…. That night at the circus before Asami threw herself off the hoop, just how close did the curse get to her?" he asks, Masamichi taking a moment to think to himself.

"Pretty close, I'd say only a couple of inches away from her," he answers, recalling the night at the circus, "In fact, it may have grazed her arm in the throw."

Satoru nods, the answer lining up with his theory, "So it's both voluntary and involuntary," he whispers to himself, trying to figure out the best way to explain this technique of hers.

"So," Satoru pauses, thinking of where to start, "The general conception of this technique of hers, is that once you touch her the slightest bit, her black fog sticks to you like honey."

"So like residuals?"

Satoru looks hesitant to agree, "I guess so, but I think it's better to imagine it as a black cloud hanging over your head, waiting for her signal to make it rain on you, or in this case, activate her technique. Now, it's important to note that this black fog of hers also has a time limit, in terms of how long it can stick to you for."

"Well … how long?"

"Exactly 2 minutes, not only that, but you have to be within a 5 feet radius of her," he answers.

"Okay… keep going…"

"There are two versions to this technique, involuntary and voluntary…" Satoru pauses, clearing his throat, "When done involuntarily, such as we've seen in the warehouse, and what I assume happened at the circus, Asami's fog acts on its own. Think of it as a trade off, physiological torture in exchange for having herself saved," he states.

Masamichi recalls the fearful look on Asami's face, things beginning to make sense.

"Asami gets glimpses of her biggest nightmares, and similar to her replenish technique, inside her mind time goes by a lot slower than what we see in person," he adds, "Not only that, but in order for the fog to act involuntarily, Asami needs to have a massive amount of cursed energy still left within her. And because Asami didn't know how to use cursed energy neither at the circus nor at the warehouse, her fog was able to save her."

"Well I guess that's what her replenish technique is for, right?"

Satoru nods, "You got it," he laughs, "Now onto the second version … voluntary. When activated voluntarily, rather than see her own fears and nightmares, Asami sees that of her victims'. Something which is quite …."

"Traumatic," Masamichi says for him, for this was the technique that made her a special-grade.

Sighing, Satoru continues to explain, "Unlike her involuntary version, Asami doesn't need too much cursed energy, but she definitely still needs a good amount."

"And how does she activate it?"

Satoru raises his hand, "Just by going like this," he makes a squeezing motion with his hand, "But once she activates it, her hand forcefully goes like…." he closes his fist, "...that."

"Why?"

"I don't know," he shrugs, "All I know is that it makes whoever's under the technique go," he opens his fist, symbolizing that the curse/person would explode, "She's tried not to do it, but…"

"It's something out of her control," Masamichi says, making Satoru nod.

"And there's no way to combat it?"

Satoru bites his lip, "Well like I said, the fog has a time and radius limit, but as to getting out of its grasp once you're under it, I'm not too sure…" Satoru pauses, "Either way, you've seen how Asami got after using it at the warehouse. Like you said, it's traumatic. She herself has even declared to never use it unless it's completely necessary. And honestly, I believe her."

Sighing, Masamichi feels as if an extra weight had been added onto his shoulders, "Well…" he takes a deep breath in, "I just hope she never has to use it."

---

She could see it. She could see the number of times that man would beat her. She could see the tears that'd roll down her face whenever he'd come back home from work. And most importantly….

Asami could see the day Yua killed him.

Staring at the woman in front of her, Asami sees the tears rolling down Yua's eyes as she relives her deepest nightmares with her, teardrops of blood still falling down the knife in her hand.

Silence fills the air.

'She's human just like us,' Asami feels her hand shake as she desperately tries to prevent it from shutting, watching the woman stare at her with a dead look in her eyes.

With a pained smile on her face, Yua wipes the tears off her face with a bloody hand, knowing her death was imminent, "You're…"

Asami's hand begins to slowly squeeze shut, Yua then feeling her veins tighten.

"A…."

"I'm so sorry," Asami's voice breaks, lips trembling.

"Monster."

The woman explodes, her blood, flesh, and bone splattering onto Asami. Looking down at her trembling hands, Asami finally understands.

"So Asami, I need you to be unafraid of death right now,"

Masamichi wasn't referring to the dead bodies that had been on the floor, nor had he been referring to Asami. Instead, what he had been referring to were the dead bodies caused by her hands.

Metal.

That's what the woman's blood smells like. The blood that Asami was now completely drenched in, her dress no longer a pink color, but a bright red, Meanwhile her hair is no longer strawberry red, but a dark crimson color….

Silence. Nothing, but complete utter silence.

"I-I couldn't do it," Satoru's voice shakes as he stares at the girl in front of him.

Suguru and Masamichi stare at the scene in front of them in shock, knowing that in this moment, everything had changed.

Continuing to stare at her bloody hands, Asami feels as if her mind is racing at a 1000 miles per hour, unable to focus on one single thing. Slowly getting up from the floor, Asami whispers incoherent things to herself as she tries to process everything.

It just didn't make sense…

He said he'd do without hesitation. He said that as a jujutsu sorcerer you had to make certain sacrifices, even if they were cruel and inhumane. And most importantly…

He said he was the strongest.

That's all he ever talked about. Strong. Strong. Strong.

So then why had he become so weak, the moment she needed him to be strong? Why was it that she was covered in flesh and blood, and not him?

Looking up at Satoru, Asami knows that she's past the point of having her heart broken.

"A-Asami," Satoru stutters, "I'm so sorry," he weakly whispers, watching as she tries to fight back her tears.

Watching her make her way towards him, Satoru completely turns off his infinity, for he knew that he deserved every hit on the chest he was currently receiving.

"Why! Why couldn't you do it!" she yells at him, spreading the blood on her hands onto his shirt, "I don't get it!" she cries out, desperately grasping onto his shirt.

Feeling someone grab at her arm, Asami immediately pulls away.

"Asami," Suguru tries to pull her off of Satoru, but the girl relents, continuing to hit Satoru as she begs for an answer, their night at the ball finally coming to….

The End.

---

A/N: 22K WORDS LATER! Whew! I hope this wait was worth it omg! This chapter was SO hard to write in terms of techniques and fighting scenes but it's also one of my favorite chapters!

I feel so evil right now hahaha! Originally this was supposed to be split into two, but I really liked the contrast of having one half of the chapter be a complete fairytale while having the other half be a complete nightmare.

I had to give you all a reminder that fairy tales simply do not exist in the world of JJK! Can you guys believe we're not even halfway through this arc, like we're still barely scratching the surface! Because (spoiler) once we move onto them confessing they like each other, then we move onto the road of getting to love each other, which is another whole different school year! Which is even more fun!

This current part of the arc focuses on how Gojo reaches the level where he's willing to kill someone like Toji, while also focusing on the more human aspect of him as I think people often forget he's human. Hell, I think he forgets it sometimes. As you guys can also see, Asami seems to care a lot about killing someone while in present day (Morocco) she seemed to not care at all, so we'll definitely see the change in her mentality this whole arc as its definitely a slow change compared to Gojo.

Let me know what you all thought of this chapter! What were your favorite parts and all of that! Anything is appreciated! And do not worry this angst will only last for a tiny while! (Hint: The kiss is coming soon.)