Awakening, Gojo Satoru
Set to be executed for the danger she posed, a strange boy came to her with a proposal.
prompt: just a random whimsy I thought of.
featuring characters: Gojo Satoru, Higurashi Kagome
tags: slight language, slight age gap, masochism, semi-humor?
word count: 1.9k
a/n: Satoru was about 14 years old when he and Kagome were formally introduced here.
When she was 15, she was dragged down the well.
When she was 16, her power was unsealed and she ended the curse of the wishing jewel.
When she was 17, she was recruited against her will.
Initially, it wasn't a recruitment at all. Instead, she was forcibly taken from her home to be executed due to the perceived threat she posed to the sorcerer society. Feared for her ability to nullify the curse energy, regardless of how powerful the sorcerer might be.
For a moment, Higurashi Kagome considered blasting her way out of that dingy, dank talisman-covered room and just...scrolling on home.
She could just do that; walking hundreds of miles back home wasn't that much of a challenge for her. Maybe a nice long hike was what she needed to curb her restlessness. It wasn't too bad of an idea.
But, there was no telling if those strange people weren't holding her family and friends hostage. So she stayed put in silence, with only her thoughts to keep her company. She prayed for her loved ones' sake.
Despite her efforts to suppress her holy energy though, the papers were sizzling.
Then Kagome blinked and there he was.
A young boy with snow-white hair and a pair of piercing blue eyes sat a fair few feet away. He was casually straddling the chair, resting his arms on the backrest. From the side, he kicked his feet against the dusty ground, effortlessly balancing on only two legs of his seat. This was a boy who showed no qualms about the apparent threat sitting in front of him.
"...For someone who got all the higher-ups in a mass panic," the boy tipped his chair closer, eyeing Kagome more closely, "you sure don't seem like someone who wanted to erase an entire society from the face of the planet."
Kagome tilted her head. Through her spiritual perception, she could see six strange eyes floating around his face. A sheer amount of strange power emanated from his person, swirling like smoke from a bonfire. It was a type of power that could oppress people, even causing a brain bleed under enough pressure.
To her though, it was like a harmless breeze.
"To be honest with you," Kagome admitted, lowering her hands to her lap. "I'm not sure why I'm here. I would rather just go home if that's alright."
"They're planning on executing you," the boy pointed out, settling his chin on his crossed arms, "and that doesn't make you nervous or angry?"
Kagome wondered if she wanted to punch that boy.
"More annoyed than anything, since your people took me during dinnertime. And really, do your people have a tendency to just...execute someone without a just cause?"
The boy shrugged lazily, neither confirming nor denying her question. The chair's front two legs settled on the dusty cement with a deafening clack and his eyes sharpened. "So, what are you? I've never met anyone that has so much power—yet has no curse energy running through their veins."
"I'm human," Kagome deadpanned, as if it was the stupidest question ever asked.
The boy leaned forward, fascinated. "Are you? You sure about that?"
The way he worded his question grated on Kagome's nerves as if he was looking down upon her. Her eyebrow twitched with irritation.
"I'm pretty sure," she scoffed, "what else could I be?"
"...Interesting." The boy hummed and rocked back and forth on his chair, more to annoy Kagome. "You should be dead from all this curse energy and yet—"
He swept an arm to motion the papers steadily burning by her seirei ryoku*(1).
"You're quite alive and perfectly healthy," he murmured, deep in thought. The sheer curiosity and interest in his tone were disturbing, setting a sense of unease within the pit of Kagome's stomach. "So...if you're not a curse, then are you something new entirely?"
Kagome frowned. "And what are you then? If not a human?"
Collectively, all six of the boy's floating eyes blinked. A brief beat and his shoulders shook with mirth. Leaning into the backrest, he took a long inhale as if to clear uncomfortable laughter from his lungs. "No one ever asked me that before! I usually get some nasty insults, but never this question—!"
Thudding himself down on the hard ground, the boy snickered at Kagome's unimpressed dour. Raking a hand through his messy hair, he flexed his toes and tipped his chair once again, "I'm definitely a human, miss 'I-have-so-much-power-that-it's-burning-down-this-room'."
Kagome's eye twitched at the sarcastic tone laced through his endearment.
"I do have a name. It's Kagome. Higurashi Ka-go-me."
"Kagome-chan, eh? I'm Gojo Satoru." Satoru grinned, propping his chin on one palm, entertained by Kagome's wide-eyed indignation.
To Kagome, Satoru's smile seemed quite fake.
"Higurashi-san is fine." Kagome said dryly, reining in the urge to throttle the boy. He was too young for her to be disrespected like this.
"So, Kagome-chan!" Satoru ignored her scowl and continued, "The higher-ups think you're dangerous. But you don't want to behead the elders and eradicate us curse users?"
Kagome couldn't stop the exasperated sigh from escaping her lips. She answered blandly, "I had no idea any of you people even existed until last night."
"Oh?" The six eyes had Kagome averting her gaze with how creepily close they were to her face. Satoru drummed his fingertips against the chair's frame, pondering Kagome's answer. He clicked his teeth and flicked his fingers to the crumbling paper seals, "But you have enough power to do such a thing, don't you?"
"...I suppose, but I have no desire to," Kagome slowly confirmed.
It was an outrageous notion to destroy a whole group of people, even if they might've been misguided in their assumptions of her.
Though she had come quite close to exorcising those who forced her out of her family home of their abilities. Kagome hadn't, simply because she hadn't wanted to traumatize her family further and wanted to live her life as normally as possible. She was already enough of a walking supernatural disaster as it is.
"Huh," Satoru rocked the chair in a quiet consideration.
"Why are you here, Gojo-san?" Kagome straightened her sleeve, hiding her discomfort from the way Satoru's six ghastly eyes were surrounding her person. She questioned, "You don't really believe their blustering, do you?"
"Hmm, I barely listened to those old fogeys," the chair thudded on all four legs before Satoru rolled it to one leg and teetered back and forth, deliberately aggravating Kagome further. He admitted with a wry grin, "I actually kinda wanted to test you—to see how strong you are against me."
Kagome inhaled deeply and clasped her hands on her thighs. Suppressing her feeling of annoyance from coloring her voice, she managed an even tone, "Fine, hit me with your best shot. Sooner we conclude this, the better—"
The chair Satoru was sitting on, spun on one leg, before it toppled over to the floor.
A thunderous quake followed.
Kagome remained where she was, unaffected.
"Hm, you are quite fast," she scratched her chin, staring at the huffing boy. "how many times did you try to attack me now?"
Satoru staggered from the casual way she spoke and pressed his palms on his thighs, grimacing. His heaving body shuddered from expelling so much of his pent-up curse energy at once, and his once-neat clothes were wrinkled his jacket missing. He wiped his brows and grudgingly replied, "Ninety-seven..."
"Is that so?" Kagome patted her knees, dusting off the imaginary specks from her leggings.
A slight whistle and Satoru disappeared.
With a sigh, Kagome raised a hand—and sliced it down right upon the boy's head, her energy surging like a white comet. From her power manifesting, every single talisman in the room crumbled into black ashes. A thunk—!
A shrilling yelp echoed through the cold chamber.
"Ouch!" Satoru clenched his head, his eyes teary. The spike of Kagome's divine punishment had all of his senses on fire. "What is this—!?"
With a dismissal huff, Kagome looked over the white hair for any other injury, "I didn't hit you that hard, Gojo-san."
Satoru released a strained moan, but his face was strangely red. His hands fell upon the brim of his forehead, a hazy expression fluttering onto his handsome features. "Ah, it kinda feels good..."
The hairs on Kagome's neck prickled.
"Huh?"
She never put an ounce of her reiki*(2) in her hit? It was supposed to hurt. This little white-haired menace though looked like he had his first taste of heaven instead.
Kagome was positive this was not a normal reaction.
In the midst of his giggling, Kagome barely stifled a yelp when Satoru flashed an inch from her face and nearly seized her shoulders. "No one ever bypassed my infinity before!" He said so gleefully it was jarring for Kagome to hear.
He was disheveled, yet a sickeningly enraptured smile spread across his face. "For you to be able to touch me so easily, you are so...amazing, Kagome-channnn!"
"The hell is the infinity—!?" Kagome squawked when Satoru yanked her into a bear hug, rubbing his flushed cheek on hers. "L-Let me g-o!"
Before Kagome could pry herself loose to deliver another blow on the boy's apparently empty skull, Satoru parted from her body long enough to enthusiastically exclaim, "Kagome-chan, I've decided!"
A sense of dread formed in her chest at his declaration.
"You should be my sensei—!"
A hand came down upon Satoru's head with a painful smack, sending him shambling from Kagome's side to grasp his head. Kagome cradled her palm, grimacing at Satoru's flustered expression. "What the hell are you on about, Gojo-san?"
"Sa-to-ru!" Satoru immediately corrected, bouncing back from the second blow he'd received seconds before. "Call me Satoru, Kagome-channnn—or," he paused with a cock of his head, "should I call you Kagome-sensei?"
The way Satoru purred out the syllables of her name raised the urge to commit violence upon this six-eyed menace. Kagome stopped herself from delivering another slap with a long inhale. She exhaled, "Didn't I ask you to call me Higurashi-san before?"
"Yep!" Satoru affirmed with a chirp.
Kagome wanted to yell, to give in to her urge to strangle, but she sucked in another deep breath.
Exhaled.
Repeating the process, Kagome buried her bubbling homicidal intent and asked again, "What are you talking about, Gojo-san?"
"Satoru—!"
"Don't care, please answer the question."
Satoru visibly wilted from Kagome's refusal, yet he persisted through with a beaming smile. "Since I'm the greatest sorcerer of all times and all, I can definitely pull a few strings to let you off the execution order~!"
Making her way back to her untouched chair, Kagome dryly remarked, "How very generous of you, but there's a catch, isn't there?"
Satoru's eyes glittered like stars and his snow-white hair fluttered from the sudden movement to recover his chair. With all six of his strange eyes clustered together above Kagome's head, Satoru straddled the seat and enthusiastically answered, "Enroll in Jujutsu Technical High as a student—and my teacher!"
"...I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Kagome groaned.
If agreeing to humor this strange boy's request will ensure her loved ones' safety, then so be it.
Satoru looked quite pleased with himself.
She had no idea what she had signed up for.
"By the way," Satoru pointed at himself, "can you hit me aga—?"
Kagome was quick. "No."
A moment of silence, before Satoru leaned forward and whimpered, "B-but...the hit feels so nice—"
"No."
"But Kagome-senseiiii~!"
Kagome cradled her face in misery.
Somehow, she'd awakened this fool as a fucking masochist.
Why?
…and so that was how she was recruited and enrolled into the Jujutsu Technical High.
notes:
*(1) a literal translation to raw spiritual energy.
*(2) reiki is a type of spiritual energy that can be harnessed and manipulated for healing purposes.
a/n:...Well, I originally intended on including a future scene of when Kagome and Satoru are both older and Kagome's dealing with Satoru's shenanigans, but this little snippet kept on going. I also planned on having the young Satoru to be more...stoic (esp. since this is before he and Suguru even met), but no, his character ran away from me too. RIP me.
Anyway, I actually do -not- have any plan to write an...'official' JJK x IY xover longfic, with so much on my plate (plus, as much as I loved JJK, it's too much of a misery fest for me to want to include Kagome into its core plot). So, this and the potential sequel is all you're going to get from me lol anyway hope you'll enjoy!