Satoru Gojō
The restaurant was moderately busy. There were enough customers to generate a low-volume background noise of chatter, but not too much that it would make it difficult to converse with people at the same time.
Satoru Gojō drummed his fingers on the table, his meal left untouched. He had mindlessly repeated his standard order when prompted, and when the food arrived he found he had no appetite.
Not that his fellow Sorcerers minded.
Suguru blatantly picked at Satoru's fries. Suguru had a bad habit of never ordering enough food for himself; he would always scavenge from whoever else ate with him.
Mei Mei and Shōko sipped on their drinks. Shōko, having accepted that Satoru wasn't going to eat his burger, promptly slid his tray over her side.
Three years. Three years since Satoru Gojō started hunting for his mysterious pink-haired lady. Each year he was able to learn a bit more about her—she always visited him on his birthday, New Year, Valentine's Day, and White Day—but it was never enough to actually find her, or confirm her name.
It was like she lived in a completely separate dimension!
Urgh, how frustrating.
His latest lead had turned up a dud, which was why he was in a sour mood.
"You could claim her as a missing person," Shōko half-heartedly suggested. She unwrapped his burger.
And draw that much attention to her? She's hiding for a reason, I don't think she'd celebrate my birthday again if I did that.
"No," Satoru said. "I can do this."
"Doubt it," Shōko snorted quietly before she bit into his burger.
He had let his peers know about her existence when he found out Shōko and Suguru had met her before. They seemed to delight in his inability to instantly find her.
"We should have more faith in our friend," said Suguru, finishing the last of Satoru's fries.
Mei Mei scoffed quietly into her drink. "Destruction is his forté. Finding one mysterious girl that has evaded the Jujutsu Society for years is a tall order. It requires patience, wit, and intelligence. Gojō barely passes the last requirement."
Satoru sneered. "You wouldn't be able to do any better."
"It's my specialty—"
"You can claim that all you want, but you're still only you. I can find her on my own. I don't need any help—not now, not ever."
His peers gave him a sour look—Mei Mei, in particular, looked darkly furious—but Satoru didn't care. They could be upset all they wanted, it didn't change the fact that it was true.
Satoru Gojō was well on his way to being the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer. Since perfecting his Limitless and figuring out the truth behind Reverse Cursed techniques, there were very few who could defeat him.
He did not need help from those he considered weaker than him. It'd be insulting.
Shōko's phone dinged. She pulled it out, and let out a huh.
"If I tell you new information about your girlfriend, you have to buy me lunch for the rest of the month," said Shōko.
Satoru rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "As if you have anything. Fine. If it's not new, you owe me lunch. And I'm expensive."
Shōko smirked. "You know that kid born with Heavenly Restriction?"
"Yeah?"
"He's been healed," she said. Shōko's smirk widened to a gleefully smug grin. "By a pink-haired, red-eyed angel."
Satoru froze. "What?"
"Angel, huh?" Suguru murmured thoughtfully. "That's amazing. I wonder how she did it—?"
"Where's the kid now?" Satoru demanded.
"In Kyoto."
"'Kay," said Satoru, already running out the door.
"I'm thinking lobster with caviar for my lunch tomorrow," chortled Shōko.
"Don't forget a side of Kobe beef," Mei Mei added.
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Lilly
"This… is not the hallway," came a low drawl.
Lilly looked up from her laptop at the incoming guests. She smiled brightly. "Do come in!"
The guest stepped in. She was a young woman with pale blue hair pulled into a ponytail, and brown-gray eyes. She was dressed in a dark bodysuit with an attached skirt and sturdy boots. She peered around the tea shop, a coy smile on her lips. "What a quaint little place."
"Thank you," Lilly said, the door shutting behind the woman as she entered.
"My, my," the woman said, peering at Lilly. "Are you the pink-haired angel?"
"The what?" Lilly blinked.
"Didn't you heal a boy a few days ago—?"
"Oh! Him, yeah," she said. "How's he doing? He kept crying here, so I put him back when he fell asleep."
"Peachy," said the woman as she took a seat at the bar. She pulled out her phone. "No reception?"
"Not here," said Lilly. "This is a place to disconnect. May I serve you something to drink?"
"How much?"
"I don't take money here," she said. "All I ask is for company and conversation."
"I can give both," the woman demurred. "I'm Mei Mei. And you, little angel?"
"Lilly," Lilly introduced. "He's really calling me an angel?"
Mei Mei shrugged nonchalantly. "No one was able to heal him. Yet you did." She leaned on the counter, eyes narrowed in sly assessment. "Gojō has been earnestly looking for you."
"We're playing a little game," Lilly admitted with a smile. "He wins if he learns my name or finds this place."
"I know. And yet you invited me here before him? I can already see how unhappy he'll look," Mei Mei purred.
Lilly giggled when she thought of how adorable he would like while pouting. "I didn't invite you, per se. The door did. It's enchanted to invite whoever would make good company for me at the time. One day it might invite him. Or maybe it never will. That's ultimately up to how interesting the door finds him."
Mei Mei laughed. "Your door is calling Satoru Gojō boring? That's delightful."
Or the chase is more interesting, Lilly privately thought. She didn't know, the door had a mind of its own. That was one of the reasons why she loved it. Life needed some curveballs to keep the spice. It had already pulled in some aspiring writers, actors, directors, chefs, and all sorts of creative folks that Lilly had the joy of engaging in long conversations with. Some of them had even become returning customers, popping in at odd hours with a fascinating tale to share.
The old soul loved collecting stories.
"Here you are," said Lilly.
"What's this?" Mei Mei inquired, sniffing at the warm drink. "It smells… hmm… I don't think I've ever smelled something like this."
"It's not from your world," Lilly answered. "Something you can only find here."
"How valuable," Mei Mei whispered as she took a tentative sip. She blinked. "Oh. Oh. That's divine." She took a longer drink. "I'd like to visit the world that made this."
Lilly smiled. "Many would."
Mei Mei carefully set her drink down, dark eyes flickered up to openly assess Lilly. "You have a face that'd attract attention."
"I'll interpret that as being pretty enough to draw eyes. Have I caught yours?" Lilly flirted.
Mei Mei smiled thinly. "For different reasons."
"It was the tea, wasn't it? Everyone loves a good tea maker."
Mei Mei let out a soft chuckle. "You've done a lot of interesting things. You're… helpful… for what purpose?"
"I wanted to," Lilly said. "Do I need more reason than that?"
Mei Mei cocked her head, the action reminiscent of a bird. "I suppose not. This place—this dimension—it feels… off. Eerily calm. Normally I'm a lot more cautious by nature, yet I felt compelled to believe that whatever beverage you made for me would be safe to consume. I am even inclined to believe that you are safe."
"Ah, that's likely because of me," Lilly apologized. "I added some special barriers to encourage trust and relaxation. I'd never get any customers if everyone was too paranoid because they thought I was a demon trying to buy their soul or something."
"A fair point," Mei Mei said, finishing the tea. "Ah, another one?"
"I'll keep them coming until you're ready to go home," Lilly promised.
Mei Mei smirked. In a light voice, she teased, "You're an angel."
Lilly snorted, not pausing as she prepared the next cup of tea from leaves grown and plucked from the Emerald Dream.
Mei Mei tapped on the counter with one of her long fingernails. "Satoru Gojō… I could tell him about this place. About you."
"You could," Lilly agreed.
"You won't stop me?"
"The door invited you here for a reason," said Lilly. "That either means it's ready for Satoru to find me, or it knows you won't tell him."
"Clever door. Gojō thinks he can find you without my help. It would be awfully rude of me to interfere, don't you agree?"
Lilly giggled. "Terribly rude! You're such a considerate friend."
Mei Mei chuckled.
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
2014
Yūji Itadori reached for the doorknob of the alluring red-oak door.
On his bike ride home from school the sullen gray clouds decided to unleash all of their water at once. The downpour came so suddenly, Yūji had no time to react. One moment he was merrily biking his way home, the next his vision was obscured by a curtain of water and he nearly crashed into a pedestrian. In an attempt to not run anyone over, he veered abruptly to the side and promptly lost control of his bike and crashed into an alleyway.
Bleeding, sore, wet, and cold, he looked around for someplace to take shelter and saw a big red oak door with light pouring out.
Something about the door called out to Yūji and before he even realized what he was doing, he entered.
At once, tantalizing warmth rushed into him. Smells of baked goods, tea, and a fireplace filled his nose.
Yūji had never seen a fireplace before, so his vision immediately went to that. It was huge: the fire lazily eating away at the logs was mesmerizing. Yūji was so focused on the fire that he didn't realize someone was calling out to him until he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder.
Yūji jumped, and then recalled that he was hurt and promptly regretted it, "Ow, ow, ow."
The person who had touched his shoulder was a young woman with long, gradient pink hair and bright red eyes. Her eyes were wide with concern. "You're hurt. What happened? Are you okay?"
Yūji's cheeks felt hot as the pretty woman started to fuss over him. "Um, I just, um, slipped in the rain."
"Come in, sweetheart," she said. "Here, let me get you fixed up."
She lifted him up by the waist. Yūji let out a squawk of surprise at that, but she paid him no mind as she set him on the counter. Her hands moved down to his scraped knees and he felt something warm and tingle touch—
"Your hands are glowing green!" Yūji blurted out in surprise then he watched the blood go back inside his injuries.
What.
The.
Heck.
"Are you a witch?" he whispered in awe.
"Once upon a lifetime ago," she said with a smile. "I'm Lilly. And you?"
"Yūji Itadori," he said cheerfully. "That's so cool. You can do magic?"
"I can do all sorts of things," she said. "Want to see more?"
"Uh—duh!" said Yūji excitedly.
She winked. "As you wish."
Abruptly, Yūji felt light. Amazingly light. So light, in fact that when she picked him up again he stayed in the air. Yūji gasped, flailing as he realized he was flying!
"THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"
Lilly laughed. "Come now, don't set the bar so low! I can give you better days, sweetheart. Are you hungry?"
"Do I have to stop flying to eat?" Yūji asked.
"Of course not."
"Then yes I am!"
"It was about time for me to close up shop anyway. How about you join us for dinner?" Lilly offered.
"Um—" Yūji squinted his eyes in thought. "I'd need to tell my Grandpa."
"That's fine, I have a phone that'll work upstairs," she said.
She offered her hand. Yūji grabbed it, and she pulled him through the air and up the stairs behind the counter. Yūji didn't know what he expected a witch's house to look like, but it was disappointingly normal.
He somersaulted through the air, giggling to himself at the bubbly feeling. When she handed him a phone, he wasted no time in calling his Grandpa to tell him he'd be having dinner with a friend.
By that, he meant he told his Grandpa's voicemail because no one picked up. Not surprising, his Grandpa was a busy person in retirement.
Yūji happily handed back the phone right as another boy entered the kitchen.
He was taller than Yūji, although not by much. He had dark blue eyes and messy black hair. From his uniform, Yūji could tell he had just gotten out of school. Although unlike Yūji, the boy didn't have a single drop of water on him.
"Baby!" cooed Lilly.
"Hey Mama," said the boy, glancing up at Yūji with plain curiosity. "Who are you?"
"I'm Yūji Itadori. You have a really cool mom," said Yūji, casually flipping through the air.
The boy grinned. "Heh. I'm Yūta. How old are you?"
"Eleven!" Yūji chirped.
"Thirteen," said Yūta, puffing out his chest. "What school do you go to?"
Yūji repeated his school's name.
"Huh. Not in a city then?" asked Yūta.
Yūji shook his head. "Why?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Yūji will be joining us for dinner," said Lilly. "It'll be about forty minutes, would you please keep him company, baby? Oh, and would you please get him some dry clothes before he catches a cold?"
"Sure, Mama," said Yūta. "Wanna play Mario Kart?"
"You have Mario Kart?!"
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
It was the fastest forty minutes of Yūji's life. Yūta had given Yūji some extra clothes to wear while they played, and then proceeded to trounce Yūji in Mario Kart. It was laughably one-sided, but Yūji still had a great time. Mostly due to Yūta's ability to make Yūji laugh. Talking with the boy was comfortable and easy, Yūta was hilarious!
The smell of pork made Yūji's stomach gurgle loudly.
"Dinner should be about done, let's head down," said Yūta. Yūta stood up and offered Yūji his hand. Yūji had been relishing his floating experience, but he had no control over where to go so he needed Yūta's help to move around the house.
Yūji accepted Yūta's hand. The older boy pulled him out of his bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen. To Yūji's surprise, there was another person at the dinner table. A huge, rough-looking man in a t-shirt and sweats. He had a scar over his lip and sharp eyes that zeroed in on Yūji. "Did you adopt another kid?"
"Maybe," said Lilly. "Yūji, sweetheart, this is Tōji. Tōji this is Yūji Itadori."
"Hi," said Yūji.
"Hi," Tōji flatly returned.
"Don't worry, he doesn't bite," Yūta whispered to Yūji. "Most of the time."
"Does that mean he bites some of the time?" Yūji whispered back, immediately concerned.
Yūta laughed. "Don't worry, you're Mama's guest. Nous vous garderons en sécurité. Peut-être."
"Huh?" Yūji blinked. "Wait, what? Huh?"
"Yūta, be polite to the darling boy," Lilly lightly chided.
Yūta grimaced. "Entschuldigung, Mama." He tugged Yūji to the table. "Here, you can sit next to me."
Yūji grabbed onto the table and pulled himself down into a seat. The table had a big boiling pot in the center—a hot pot. It had been ages since Yūji ate from a hotpot since it was just him and his Grandpa. The smells were utterly divine and made his mouth water.
Lilly placed drinks in front of each of the plates. Yūji guessed it was some kind of iced tea given the color and lack of bubbles. He took a first sip, happy that it was a sweet flavored tea—Yūji didn't like bitter stuff. Blech!
"Why a hotpot?" Tōji asked.
"It's a rainy day," she said.
"Clear skies in Tokyo," Yūta said.
"Hot as fucking hell in Nevada," added Tōji.
"Shut up," Lilly snapped prickly in English. Her demeanor softened when she addressed Yūji. "Go on, you can have the first bite, sweetheart."
"Thanks for the meal," Yūji said cheerfully. The first bite of the food brought tears to Yūji's eyes. He sniffled. "This is so good."
"Aww," cooed Lilly. "Yūta, baby, que diriez-vous d'avoir un petit frère?"
"Il est plutôt mignon," said Yūta in an agreeing manner. "Je ne dirais pas non."
"Please stop," sighed Tōji. "Having to learn English was bad enough. You both promised to stick to Japanese at the table."
"Sorry," Lilly apologized. She placed an affectionate kiss on Tōji's cheek. The gruff man only gave her a withering stare in return.
"Sorry," echoed Yūta, as he blew Tōji a kiss who tiredly stared back.
This is a very affectionate family, thought Yūji. Ahh, I'm kind of jealous.
"Yūji, sweetheart, would you like to come again tomorrow?" asked Lilly.
Yūji beamed. "Can I?"
"Of course."
Yūta nudged him. "I'll help you with your homework, and then we can play some more games."
Boo to the homework, yay to the games!
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Bonus:
"Toji, my dear–"
"No."
"You didn't even let me finish."
"I see the butler uniform you're hiding. The answer is no."
Lilly pursed her lips. "Why not? It's fun working at my cafe! Ame loves it."
Toji gave her a flat look. "No."
She sighed. "Tora, baby—"
"Hell no."
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Translations:
Yūta laughed. "Don't worry, you're Mama's guest. We will keep you safe. May~be."
"Huh?" Yūji blinked. "Wait, what? Huh?"
"Yūta, be polite to the poor boy," Lilly lightly chided.
Yūta grimaced. "Sorry, Mama." He tugged Yūji to the table. "Here, you can sit next to me."
.
.
.
"Aww," cooed Lilly. "Yūta, baby, how about having a little brother?"
"He's kinda cute," said Yūta in an agreeing manner. "I would not say no."
"Please stop," sighed Tōji. "Having to learn English was bad enough. You both promised to stick to Japanese at the table."
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Lilly has an addiction to adopting babies.
Answer: Ghibli music soothes my soul
Question: If you were an anime character, what would be your gag-addiction? (Naruto's is ramen; Satoru's is being a Troll™; Rukia's is cute things; etc, etc)
Reviews are love!