The useless girl
Chapter 2: Sushiro
She looks at the watch she wears on her right wrist. Small and white, it looks as fragile as a dry twig. She looks worried and before he gets an idea of what must be wandering through her mind he asks her.
"Are you in a hurry?"
"I still have time to catch the last flight home. Please don't take this the wrong way..."
Kasumi replies and then bows to him. She wrinkles her face in apology, so painstakingly that Satoru is forced to stop her. He laughs, his soft laughter stops her and even makes her smile as they both walk in the direction of the small black car waiting for them outside the hospital.
"Some other time," he answers her without any other choice.
The black veil over the building is slowly unraveling as slowly as it was formed. But Satoru's smile fades after seeing the dark sky hidden by the veil. Not a star is visible, the whole sky is covered with a thick black cloud. He looks beyond, although he can feel it in his bones. The dampness of the atmosphere is palpable, though until this moment he had not paid much attention to it.
"Not that I have any intention to ruin your plans," he tells her, his face still tilted towards the firmament.
Kasumi imitates his position, curious about what has captured his attention. A blink later she hears the shockwave traveling across the sky, followed by the electrical chirping furrowing the clouds.
As the first drops fall Kasumi's mouth curves into a whimper.
"It can't be..." she murmurs, "Let's be optimistic," she seems to answer herself, "maybe it's just a passing cloud."
A second clap of thunder sounds like a protest and a couple more flashes of lightning paint the sky. Satoru smirks, Kasumi doesn't have the same idea about what this optimism implies.
"It looks like you'll have to take me up on my offer after all. What sounds more appealing to you? Steak? Sushi?"
"Steak?" interrupts the boy who has been waiting for them under an umbrella by the car, quickly running to Kasumi and covering her. "I'm starving, shall we go somewhere?"
"And what did you say your name was?"
"Uh... Tetsuo, sir," he answers and bows again as if this is the first time they meet. "Tetsuo Yoshida."
"I'd prefer to go to the airport right away..."
"There's no case," Satoru answers and lifts the screen of his cell phone. "All flights in Matsumoto have been canceled."
Kasumi sighs, defeated.
"So, steak or sushi?"
Ten minutes later the three of them are wandering in the rain inside the sedan courtesy of the sorcery school. The torrential rain completely washes over the streets. Satoru has taken it upon himself to find a conveyor belt sushi restaurant not far from their location. 'Sushiro', the small restaurant with yellow painted walls looks like a hospitable place, with at least 6 cubicles.
On one side of the table sit Kasumi and Tatsuo, leaving plenty of room for Satoru to stretch his legs in front of them. But while Tatsuo can't hide his excitement at sitting down to eat with none other than Gojo Satoru, Kasumi is distracted, dividing her time between staring out the window with a depressed face and texting from her cell phone.
"I propose a rule for dinner," Satoru says as he watches the plates pass by on the conveyor belt. "No cell phones until dinner is over."
Kasumi looks up, her face is not good at hiding her emotions, her cheeks respond faster than her lips, as do her expressive blue eyes.
"I'm sorry, excuse me!" she says and ducks her head.
"Hey, hey, it's no big deal."
"Kasumi-san must be worried about her brothers," Tatsuo says with a smile.
"You two get along very well, are you dating?"
Tatsuo isn't good at the art of camouflaging emotions either. He's so red he could fry a piece of meat on his forehead and maybe an egg on one cheek. He denies with such vehemence that it serves as affirmation for Satoru, the boy is at the feet of the girl sitting next to him who doesn't seem to notice, but has yet to confess. Or that's the hasty reading Satoru can make who chooses to chuckle softly and reaches out his arm to pat Tatsuo.
"Relax, Tatsuo-chan. There's nothing to be ashamed of."
"But I'm not!"
"The food is here!" Satoru announces with an enthusiastic applause, removes his plate from the belt and hands the plate to Kasumi, who is the farthest away.
Tatsuo is having a hard time shaking off the embarrassment of the sensei's indiscreet remarks, he's silent with his face on fire and his lips pressed together.
When they are ready to take their first bite a girl approaches them. She bows to them as she apologizes for her interruption and proceeds to speak in a halting voice.
"Excuse my interruption," she says, her bangs hiding half of her face, "You're... the shamans who took care of the... the curse... on the hospital, aren't you?"
"Huh... the uniform sold us out, right?"
She nods.
"The manager would like to offer you a bottle of our best sake as a token of his appreciation."
Satoru can pay for it without a problem, but since he doesn't drink and is used to going out alone or with students, he doesn't usually order alcohol. He glances at his guests and nods, they are all adults at this table.
"That's nice of him."
Seeing Tatsuo so distressed by his impertinence gives him something akin to pity, not so much as embarrassment, he doesn't know if he has ever felt such a feeling. So, when the complimentary bottle of the house arrives it doesn't take long for him to pour him the first glass.
"Should I? I'm driving..."
"It's my fault you didn't make the next flight, so I'll drive to the inn."
"Oh, that reminds me... I have to make reservations for Kasumi-san and me. Excuse me for a moment, I'll be right back."
Kasumi stands up to make way for him and takes her place in front of Satoru. Tatsuo leaves for the restaurant lobby and Satoru wastes no time with his sushi pieces.
"It's very nice of you to invite us to dinner, Gojo-sensei. Thank you for the food."
Satoru doesn't take too kindly to 'sensei' and his last name together once again.
"I was going to invite only you, but it would have been too cruel to Tetsuo, he seems like a nice guy. And he's in love with you, in case you hadn't noticed."
"Ah? No, of course not, you're misunderstanding things... He's a good partner..."
"Maybe, or maybe I'm right and I have enough more experience than you to notice it. And stop calling me 'Gojo-sensei' or I'm going to get pissed at you."
"Really?"
"No, I don't think anyone can be upset with you, Kasumi-san. You're a very nice person."
"Thank you Go... S-Satoru-san," she says and smiles with a slight blush on her cheeks. "You seem to be a good person too."
"Why do you think so? Because of the food? Is it that no one has ever invited you to dinner before?"
"No, not just for that. Also for offering me your share of the pay for the job."
"I don't have money problems, so it doesn't count. If I were poor like you and offered you my pay, it would be a different story."
Kasumi forces a smile, he seems to have hit her with another axe in the back.
"How do you know I'm poor?"
"I remember you said that to Maki that time, before you fell asleep on the battlefield."
Another axe, this time in the chest.
"Well, I've improved my situation since then..."
"Oh, so you're not poor anymore?"
"Uhm... no, I'm still a bit poor. But less poor than before."
"I guess I'm happy for you."
Kasumi's nervous laughter is interrupted by Tatsuo's return, he has gotten two more rooms in the same inn where Gojo is staying since they have an agreement with the sorcery school for cases like tonight. He looks calmer, as if having breathed another air away from Satoru and Kasumi has helped him to shake off his modesty. He takes the small glass in which Gojo poured sake and looks him in the eye.
"Are you sure it's okay?"
He nods.
"I'll drive, drink at ease, Gojo-sensei will drive you."
After thirty minutes Tatsuo has drunk six glasses of sake while Kasumi has only drunk half of one. It's amazing how alcohol can modify even the most demure personality and while Tatsuo babbles an anecdote in which Ino got rid of a curse, Satoru wonders what effect the same amount of sake would have on someone as puritanical as Kasumi.
He listens without really doing so, nods and continues eating, he takes at least fifteen servings of sushi and a few more of fried chicken and calamari. He glances sideways at Kasumi, who smiles to herself with some discomfort and barely a flash of pink on her face from the alcohol.
"You've had too little to drink, Kasumi-san. Are you uncomfortable with me driving? I assure you I have my driver's license here," he says, picking up his wallet. "Somewhere."
"No, I don't really drink much..."
"Neither do I, I don't handle it as gracefully as our friend Tatsuo."
"Oh, don't say that sensei! You can do anything, I've heard fantastic stories about you, you're a legend! Even Kasumi-san is a fan of yours!"
"Oh really?"
Kasumi suddenly clutches her small glass and drinks it with what seems to be quite a bit of desperation.
"Yes! I'm told she keeps a souvenir from you in her room."
"Oh, that's right! I remember she asked me to take a picture with her. Remember that, Kasumi-san?"
She denies with such vehemence that she seems to believe her own lie.
"What do you mean? I saw it, Uthahime-sensei said you should throw it away and she refused. Don't you remember? AH!"
Tatsuo turns his attention to his sore foot, Kasumi has kicked it with such force that even the numbness of the alcohol can't disguise it.
"So I have a fan," Satoru says, completely disregarding the pieces of sushi left on his plate. He interlaces the fingers of his hands in a most ominous gesture and turns his pearly gaze to the girl who stirs in her seat in front of him. She ignores him, pours herself another glass of sake and Satoru wonders if that won't have the opposite effect on her soon enough. Rather than helping her to turn her attention elsewhere, it will end up triggering things on her tongue that he is suddenly beginning to find interesting.
"I'm sure she still has the picture on her cell phone," Tatsuo comments and like a magnet the eyes of the three of them move over the table to Kasumi's cell phone.
Satoru is quicker than her and picks it up, but he is not nosy enough to take a look at it, or maybe he doesn't have a close enough bond to do so. He knows from experience what he should and shouldn't do, but many times his eccentric common sense has failed him. This time he's more cautious, he just wants to see her reaction so he can get an answer out of her without making it more explicit.
"If we look at the pictures, we'll find it?"
Kasumi stutters, Satoru is not sure if it's because of the alcohol or because she has been caught red-handed.
"N-no... It's not right what you're doing!" She screams and grabs her cell phone from Satoru's hand, "How dare you rummage through a woman's things!"
"I'm sorry, Kasumi-san... we were just messing with you..."
"Of course, don't take it so hard. I'm sure you deleted it years ago, why would you still have something like that... And if not, we could take a picture now for you to add to your collection."
"Hey, that's a good idea! I'm going to ask the waitress to take a picture of us, I want to tell the guys that I went out to dinner with Gojo Satoru."
Tatsuo gets up again and only then does Satoru feel himself glared at by Kasumi's big eyes.
"Did I embarrass you?"
"Utahime was right, Gojo-sensei, you are very..."
"Audacious? Fearful? Attractive?"
"Arrogant!"
"Two things can be true at the same time. I can be very arrogant and you may have developed a crush on me."
"A crush? I don't even know you!"
"Love is that strange, hormonal and dangerous."
Tatsuo doesn't delay, he enthusiastically returns with the same young girl who offered them the bottle of sake and sits down and then gives her his cell phone. Gojo smiles and almost mockingly makes a heart with both hands, Tatsuo a peace symbol with one hand and Kasumi makes a huge effort to smile.
"This calls for a toast!" says Tatsuo swaying on his seat and raises his glass. Gojo pours himself another glass of soda and the three clink their drinks together. "What are we toasting to?"
"Uhm..."
"Let's toast to the storm that allowed us to be together tonight."
Gojo Satoru is a mastermind despite his wacky sense of humor, anyone who doesn't know him would assume he's nothing more than an idiot, and those who really consider him as such must admit on certain occasions that he is at the same time quite calculated. He pours his new friend drink after drink, until by the end of the night the bottle is empty and the driver's stomach is so full of alcohol that it will take him at least half a day to metabolize it.
He shoulders him with one arm behind his back and smiles politely at the waitresses before driving off with Kasumi. She's diligent and hurries to open the back door of the car so that Satoru can dump the loaded offal of a man in there. He says a couple of things that would take a professional translator to decipher, and after one last pitiful babble he falls asleep.
"In which pocket does he have the car keys?" He asks Kasumi as he slumps down on the back seat and rummages through the pockets of his jacket.
"I think he always keeps them in his pants pockets," she replies, craning her neck. "I'm so sorry he got so drunk, he's not usually like that, I swear."
"You don't have to be so polite around me, I'd actually like you if you occasionally disrespected me."
"I don't think I can."
Satoru reaches for the keys and stands next to her, the rain has not stopped and she holds the umbrella tightly, but makes no attempt to cover him. She has noticed, the drops do not manage to wet him, although they seem to have fallen on him. Not a strand of hair, nothing, probably not even the soles of his shoes. Kasumi lifts her chin to look him in the eye, a halo of orange light outlines his figure.
"At least try."
She, as eager as she seems to be, nods quickly as if he has given her an order.
"Yes," she replies as if by inertia, though he's not sure if she's taken him seriously.
They both circle the car and Satoru sits in the driver's seat, Kasumi leaves the wet umbrella by her feet and shakes off the drops that have fallen in her hair.
"I don't remember the last time I drove a car, but it must be like riding a bike, right?"
"I'm not so sure."
"There's a lot of buttons, but I always see Ijichi start the car with this one. Ah! You see, I was right. Let's see, let me try the pedals... now... I think I'll remember it. Don't forget to breathe Kasumi, I promise you won't die today."
"I'd like to be as sure as you are," she replies, again laughing in an awkward way.
"And I won't let it pass that you called me 'sensei' again back there. Next time I'll reprimand you. I'll have to give you a good punishment for you to learn."
"A punishment? Are you serious?"
"Of course not, what kind of punishment could I give you?" He asks, taking his eyes off the road. I would only be able to do it with your vigorous consent.
"Vigorous consent? I don't understand what you're talking about."
"Forget it. Can you turn on the GPS and look for the inn?"
"Sure!"
As Kasumi stretches out on the seat and types on the touch screen, he wonders if at her age she's that innocent or if she's really the dumb one. Or maybe she's looking to stretch his tongue to be more explicit in his innuendos. Which he finds most amusing.
"So, Kasumi-san. Utahime seems to have spoken very badly about me to you, didn't she? You said she was right, that I'm arrogant."
"Well, I think she was right and no, she doesn't usually mention you too much."
"So you've been especially attentive to what she has to say about me."
"Of course not! I pay a lot of attention to what she says in general. Besides... she's not the only one who's said it."
"Gakuganji?"
"Among others..."
"It's the cost of being the best."
"Uhm... doesn't it bother you? I mean... I'd be mortified if my colleagues said things like that about me."
"Not at all, I'm used to it. Besides, who could say anything bad about you?"
"Well, I was always the weakest in the group... I don't have an innate technique and I don't have much cursed energy. It's not nice when I'm reminded of it either, even though I know very well that it's true."
"Does it bother you to be called weak?"
"It's not that it bothers me, but it's not something I can change. Being arrogant is an easier thing to work on..."
"What do you mean? Work on my humility?"
"Maybe..."
"And how could I do something like that? It's like training to stop being yourself."
"I don't think so, it's not like working on not being the strongest... it's more like working on not saying it all the time."
"Is that enough?"
"Uhm..." She takes some time to think. "And you should also tone down some attitudes, maybe cockiness... like being late and quickly forgetting people's names."
"But that's more complicated than not mentioning I'm the strongest! Telling the truth shouldn't be wrong, maybe others should work on their sensitivity. I don't care if you're weak or poor, there are other things that interest me more about you than that."
"Really?"
He nods.
"I'm interested in why you are so complacent and why you feel the need to apologize for yourself and others."
"I think it's just politeness."
"No, no, it's something else."
"I suppose it could be low self-esteem," she replies and smiles again.
"That's it! There it is again! You always laugh when something makes you a little uncomfortable. You have to say once in a while how you feel without apologizing."
"Do I? Wow, you're more observant than I thought..."
"You see? I'm..."
"The best, I know..."
"Sorry, I'm working on it," he says and smiles.
Hi, I'm inspired by the arrival of the new season and teen Gojo is destroying me. Seeing the animation of his little face without a blindfold is AMAZING. So, to those of you who are still reading, I send you a warm greeting from my home at 8 degrees below zero (celsius).