"We're going to assess your level so we can assign you a grade," Satoru says, stretching his arms out. He went out and got a couple of curses for Kagome to exorcise. Normally he'd do a field mission and observe, but Kagome is a special case. He spent pretty much all last night browsing through the Gojo library for any information on barriers. None of the books he skimmed detailed the barrier Kagome put up at that school.
"I'm being graded? I thought I wasn't a student. Am I going to be tested, too?" Kagome tightens her fingers around her bow. Her long black hair is pulled into a high ponytail, showing off the curves of her neck and bringing more attention to her high cheekbones.
Satoru smirks, slightly amused at her questioning, but more intrigued that a bow is her weapon of choice. "Might give you some pointers if you need it. But nah, this is more to see what level of curses you can exorcise." He holds up one finger. "You got your special grade curses at the top. There are only four special grade sorcerers."
"What's the lowest grade?"
"Four. We don't want to put a grade four sorcerer up against a level one curse. So, in order to assess where you are, I got a variety of curses here. Even got a special grade one if we get that far." He shrugs. Chances are they won't get that far. His eyes peruse the length of her body, not that she knows he is checking her out with his bandages on. There's strength to her body. He does not need the six eyes to tell him that, but there is also a delicate aura around her that makes him think fighting is not her strength.
And that skirt is damn near scandalous.
Kagome nods, not fazed by his explanation. She does not have that crazy look in her eyes like his students. All good sorcerers have a bit of crazy to them. They have to. Comes with the job of seeing humanity's worst.
"Alrighty, we'll start our way up." He walks over to the cage and lets the fly head out. For extra measure, he put up a veil so no one will get hurt by any stray attacks. The fly head goes down in a split of a second. "... Okay, we'll move on then." He clucks his tongue along the roof of his mouth.
Her instincts are good. Reaction speed too.
"You always use a bow?" he questions as he lets out the level three curse, who goes down just as quickly as the last one.
"I prefer it. If I need to use a sword I can, but I'm better with long distance." Kagome wrinkles her nose and waits oh so patiently for him to let the next curse out.
"Thinking maybe we should have done a field mission after all." He skips the other grade and goes for the grade one. This one shouldn't go down with one blow, but he's opened to being wrong. The curse slinks out and darts towards Kagome. It's big bug eyes and tusks for teeth are the stuff of nightmares.
Without missing a beat, Kagome notches the arrow and exorcizes the curse just as easily as the others.
Well... huh?
Satoru crosses his arms and tilts his head to the side. Perhaps he should take her on a mission instead. Just letting the curses out seems to be too easy for her. It won't be that easy in the real world.
"Satoru," Kagome says, "I'm good for us to keep going."
He snorts. "Yeah, I can see that. Just thinking that this isn't giving you a challenge." He grabs the cage, holding the special grade, and holds out a hand. "To better mimic what it might be like out on the field, I'm gonna release this one further out and you'll need to track him down." Of course, he'll be close by. Megumi would never forgive him if he let a special grade kill his teacher.
Kagome shrugs, so he takes that as her acceptance to proceed. He releases the curse further out. A vengeful mother curse. Its body reeks, half of its face looks as though someone poured acid on it. The curse takes off, most likely to get away from him or to go after Kagome. Satoru heads back to where he left Kagome and keeps a safe distance as he watches her.
She stands in the clearing for a bit and then strolls further into the woods as though she left her picnic basket somewhere.
Calm.
Slightly indifferent.
There are different levels of crazy. Hers is more subtle.
The curse finds her first. Satoru's muscle tense. If need be, he'll step in.
"Give him back," the curse mutters in a warbled spiel. "Back."
Kagome lowers her bow as the curse flashes in front of her.
Shit. Why the hell would she lower her weapon? He holds out his hand, preparing to shoot off a red, but his vision goes...pink? His six eyes can't see anything but a blinding pink. It does not feel like cursed energy.
Kagome?
Did she do this?
When the light subsides, the curse lies on the ground. Its skin is healthy. Whole. He moves closer as the curse's body starts to fade away. It almost looks human now.
"I felt bad for it," Kagome says, softly. "It was in a lot of pain. The others weren't like that, but this one was hurting."
He opens his mouth and then closes it. His mind can't comprehend what he is hearing. What he is seeing. The curse fades away with a smile on it's no longer acidified face.
"This is not cursed energy," he says, a bit weak to his own ears. "I'm not sure what you are using, but—"
"I'm a priestess," she says, "I don't have cursed energy. Not even gramps has it and he can't even do a sutra properly." Kagome yawns and stretches her arms up. "So, is that it?"
Is that it?
Satoru laughs. It's a good thing he met her first and not one of those Zenin's. "You're cute," he coos, leaning over to poke her cheek. Her face goes red as she swats his hand away. "Shy?"
"I don't get involved with coworkers," she quips.
"Technically, you haven't accepted the job yet..."
"Because I haven't decided yet."
"Sooo, what you are saying is you want to get involved with me?"
Her mouth drops and she splutters. "That is not what I'm saying! You are so..." she looks up at the sky as if to ask it for answers. "Just forget about it. Is that it?"
"Well...it was supposed to last us a lot longer than it did. Didn't think you would be one-shotting every curse." He pulls out his phone and scrolls through his schedule. "We could do a field mission early, get it over with and I could evaluate how you do in a less controlled environment."
"That's fine. I don't mind getting rid of some of the curses, but am I going to be a teacher here or am I going to be out in the field?"
"Do you just want to be a teacher? You seem like a hands on kind of woman." He puts his phone back in his pocket and looks her over once more.
She shifts her weight to one side and ponders his question. "Hmm, being a teacher is not as dangerous. Mama is definitely over me getting into situations, but it also doesn't sit right with me that we are sending children out to handle these things. Like why aren't there more sorcerers out working the field?"
"Dead," he says matter of factually. "There's way more curse users... people that use their cursed energy to harm others and not help the general population with decreasing the number of curses." No use in sugar coating it. She isn't fazed by the curses, so something tells him that Kagome has more experience than she is letting on.
"Let's do the field mission. I can't sleep at night knowing there's something I could be doing to help." She sighs. "I know I said I could use a sword, but I am a bit rusty. Haven't had any reason to use one in a long time."
"If you weren't fighting curses, then what were you fighting?"
She nibbles on her bottom lip. "Something similar?"
"Not good enough," he says cheerily, as though they are discussing the weather. If there is something else out there, then he needs to know about it. "Yesterday you mentioned knowing someone that could warp like me. Did their energy feel similar to mine?" Could it be that she fought something other than a curse? Or did she not have the proper terminology to name what she was fighting?
Kagome squints at him. "Do you need me to heal your eyes? I'm not sure how you haven't ran into anything yet with those bandages."
"Nice try. Did their energy feel similar to mine?" He bends at the waist, crowding her space. She's hiding something and he is nothing but a persistent man. He can wear her down if need be.
"Sure," she says with an eye roll. "Now, do you need me to heal your eyes before we head out or not?"
"I'm not hurt. I wear this to help lessen the information I take in. Special eyes and all." So, she can heal too, that's good to know. As frustrating as it is, the higher-ups may be more agreeable to her joining with those qualifications.
"So, you are willingly wearing those bandages?"
"Did you want to see my eyes?" he teases as he dispels the veil.
"No, I just think the bandages are tacky," she replies without any hint of malice. "Since it's more of a preventive measure, maybe a blindfold would work best?" she murmurs the last part to herself. Kagome pats his arm. "Don't worry, I'll get you something that would work better. I can't imagine how annoying that must be to put on and take off."
"... Thanks?" His mind tries to make sense of the whiplash of her emotions. How did she turn the conversation around to getting him better eyewear?
"Can we stop and get something to eat before the mission? Forgot to eat breakfast today." She matches his strides, completely at ease with the thought of facing more curses.
Maybe she does have a few screws loose.
"I could go for a bake potato," he admits. "You know I will only step in if I think you are going to be killed."
"Isn't that the point of an evaluation?" She pulls out her phone and frowns at whatever message she received. Satoru uses his height to his advantage and glances at her phone.
"Didn't tell your boyfriend you would be with me?" he questions, voice toeing the lines between playful and annoyed. Which is stupid. He doesn't know her. Why should he care if she has a boyfriend?
"Hojo-kun doesn't understand the words no and we don't work." She types off a retort, not bothering to look at him. "But no, he's not my boyfriend."
"Do you have one?"
"A boyfriend?" She yawns. "That sounds like a pain."
He hums in acknowledgment. A boyfriend would be a real pain in the ass.
Wait.
He stops. Kagome walks ahead and turns to face him. "Something wrong?" She reaches for an arrow. Satoru shakes his head.
"No, nothing is wrong. Just forgot something is all."
Like his damn sanity, or what's left of it. There is no way he is happy about her not having a boyfriend. It's not like he wants to fill that role. Women are trouble. Love is the worst. And like she said earlier, getting involved with coworkers is always so damn messy. Too many sorcerers get out of the field or die because they were too worried about someone else.
"There's some spots close by we can walk to and then I'll have Ijichi swing around and take us to the spot."
"Ijichi?"
"Driver."
"Ah. Is he your personal driver, or does he take the students to their missions as well?"
"Occasionally he'll take the students, but for the most part, he drives me around. If you're any good, then I might share my driver with you."
"But why do you need a driver if you can just warp wherever you want?"
"There's conditions to it." He places his hand on her lower back as they go down the steps. He's only helping her out in case she trips. "Everyone has a pool of cursed energy to pull from. You don't want to be low on your output and get jumped or caught by a curse stronger than you."
"Oh. And without cursed energy, you can't do as much damage then?"
"Well, if you need cursed energy to exorcise a curse, you would have a hard time doing so if you run out."
"... But I don't use cursed energy," she murmurs, deep in thought.
He keeps silent, pretending to not have heard her. Whatever she has doesn't feel like cursed energy. It feels purer. Warm. He bites the inside of his cheek. And it does wicked things to him when she wraps it around him. He peeks a glance at her. A priestess, huh? The notion is so farfetched, but at the same time it holds up.
He doesn't have a choice but to believe her at face value for now.
They don't say anything else on the walk to the restaurant. He pays for both of them, ignoring the way she tries to shove money into his hands. It's cute. She thinks one meal is going to set him back. For now, he allows her to lead the conversation. If he wants to get more information out of her, he needs to play the long game. She is not his enemy, and he is fine with coaxing the information out of her.
She doesn't stop trying to pay him back until they leave the restaurant and reach their destination.
"Alright, I'll hang out inside the veil with you since this is a special grade," Satoru says, lifting his hand.
"I can put a barrier up," Kagome says, patting his arm as if to console him. "You put one up earlier."
His brows bunch together. "Do you not like my veils?"
"I just don't want you to run out of cursed energy in case something happens. Besides, a barrier is nothing." She smiles, so brightly that he can't even muster up a crumb of laughter at her thinking he would ever run out of cursed energy. "You can wait here. This shouldn't take too long." She stretches her arms up and heads into the building with a pep in her step.
Satoru frowns. There is a barrier in place. He sees the energy pulsating. What he can't see is outside the veil, which should hopefully mean no one can see inside either. But more concerning is Kagome set up this barrier without so much of a flick of her wrist or an incantation. It feels different from the one she put up at the school.
Can she change the properties of her barriers?
Is it that different from a curtain Ijichi could put up?
He pulls out his phone and responds to some messages. Just as he is about to switch over to a game to play, Kagome comes out of the building looking as unfazed as she did when she went in.
"All done?" Surprise coats his words. That was a special grade, and she's done already?
"Yep! Now that you're done evaluating me, are we going to discuss how I'm supposed to help the students?"
"Umm... we can start with how your barriers work. Most of them will have a manager like Ijichi around to put the veil up, but it wouldn't hurt for them to know how to do one themselves. And your barriers also hurt the curses if they try to leave?"
"Yeah, it should burn them if they try to leave or if they try to enter." She drops the barrier around them and the sudden sound of cars and people talking hits him like a shock wave. "I could do that and maybe meditation. It helps me with my output, so it might help them increase how much cursed energy they have."
"You are welcome to try, but as far as I know, you have as much cursed energy as you are born with. It's how you use your cursed technique that helps you in battle." Also, he hasn't said a damn thing to Yaga yet about his latest find. Not that he foresees Yaga saying no. And if he does, well, he's Gojo Satoru, he can throw his name around if need be.
"I'm not starting Monday, though. I can't just up and quit at the school. That would be pretty rude." She talks with her hands as they make their way over to where Ijichi is waiting for them. Ijichi looks at Kagome with so much longing behind his glasses that Satoru wants to pluck his eyes out.
On second thought, Ijichi is not allowed to drive Kagome around anywhere.
"Shall we head to the next mission?" Ijichi asks, getting the door for Kagome. He grimaces when he sees Satoru, and Satoru takes that personally, so he crowds Ijichi's personal space for good measure.
"Can we stop by the shrine? It's not too far from him?"
"What shrine?" Satoru climbs into the back seat and manspreads, smiling to himself when Kagome huffs and shoves his legs away.
"Higurashi shrine. I totally forgot to stop by yesterday and check on something. It'll only take a second."
"Checking on a blessing?"
She worries her bottom lip. "Okay, this is going to sound weird, and I don't mean to say it in that whole serial killer way."
Now she has his attention.
"But there's these weird fingers my gramps brought back with him, and they are downright evil, so I need to check on the seals."
Satoru scratches his head. Did she say evil fingers? Is she talking about what he hopes she isn't talking about? He tilts his head to the side. "Serious question. Do you always fight in a skirt?"
Kagome glances at her legs. Her long, wonderfully toned legs that shouldn't be so distracting. "Easier than fighting in jeans."
He nods his head in understanding. Got it. He'll put in a request for a floor length uniform.
A/N: I will update the summary for this since this now going to be its own story. I didn't realize how starved Kagome was to have someone in the modern world that fought things similar to demons until this chapter. Speaking of stories, I have seen all of the amazing requests and I'm thinking a few of them could be combined. Flirting with the idea of doing a series of accidental dates and meetings of Kagome and Satoru over the years. Thanks for reading! Please take care of yourselves and make sure you are staying hydrated!
