chapter 5: class S vs inconsistency

Kali sank stubbornly into the back of her chair, trying to put some distance between herself and the face of the S class exorcist, Satoru Gojo, the bearer of the 6th eye... What a bummer... What was he doing here? And above all, how had he managed to track her down?

She should simply have gone her own way earlier, when the scourge had appeared in front of her... But he wouldn't have let her anyway, and it would have been a shame not to enjoy a meal when he'd thrown himself into her arms. And yet it seemed to her that she had taken every precaution to cover her tracks. All those she had used up until now and which had protected her. She had been too trusting and had clearly underestimated the young man with the snowy hair.

And she risked paying a high price for it...

"Ka... kali-sempai...? Gojo-sensei? ...What are you talking about?" Yuuji murmured behind them in a small voice, clearly taken aback by this turn of events.

Yuuji... Damn, things were going so well on that front! How to get out of this trap? Play dumb? Hmm, that might have worked with someone less dangerous than her opponent... But with him... it was doomed. He wouldn't be fooled. It certainly wouldn't even buy him any time. He knew... He didn't know everything, of course, but he suspected part of his true nature. He'd already spotted her seals... Might as well lay his cards on the table...

"You're too close, sir... It's unpleasant..." she finally said in what she hoped was a playful tone, smiling slightly.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry!" replied the exorcism professor as he straightened up, relieving the young woman a little of the oppressive impression of his phenomenal aura. "Where are my manners?" he quipped with an amused pout.

Kali settled back in her chair, glancing apologetically at the hazel-eyed teenager who was staring at her, totally lost.

"Sorry, Yuuji-kun. I think our dinner isn't going very well..."

"Oh, but it doesn't have to be!" Gojo interjected, bringing the astonished attention of the four people present back to him.

Without further ado, the man with the headband grabbed a nearby chair, pulling it to the floor with a slightly unpleasant creak. He moved it closer to the table occupied by Yuuji, Nobara and Kali, positioning himself on the space separating his demon-bearing pupil and the one he called 'incoherence'. He twirled the chair on one leg to turn it over, sitting in it astride the back before nonchalantly crossing his arms over the back, a confident smile on his lips. All the while he kept his eyes on the stranger, clearly on the lookout despite his apparent casualness. Deep down, he didn't know what he was dealing with, and since Sukuna woke up, anything was possible...

"Megumi" the teacher replied to the dark-haired man who was still standing a few steps away. "Please get me some curly fries. With mayo. Thanks!"

The questioned man rolled his eyes before turning around and heading towards the counter, a little exasperated. That teacher, really...

"So... let's continue, Miss Incoherence... Who am I dealing with?" he said, resting his cheek against her hand in a deeply relaxed attitude.

If that's how he wanted to play it, then fine. The young woman reached for her lemonade, taking a few sips to steady herself. The cool liquid sparkled against her tongue as she thought quickly. Her patron would almost certainly have had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time if he had known she was sitting at the same table as the wearer of the 6th eye... She gently put her bottle down before staring at the exorcist, a little playfully.

"Kali," she finally said, deliberately beating about the bush. "My name is Kali.

"Well, then... Kali-san...I'm Satoru Gojo." Gojo continued, staring at her intently, never taking his eyes off her. "But what else?

"It depends," she murmured, crossing her arms under her chest, a little defensive despite the assurance she was trying to show.

"What are you?" he asked bluntly.

Faced with the silence that stretched out between them, he straightened up a little, sighing before spilling out what he already knew, just to save them all some time.

"The plague, just now," he said flatly. "It was you who eliminated it, wasn't it? I admit I don't know exactly how you did it, your occult borrowings were really... like... dissolute. It was your seals that gave you away though. You put them down on the way here, didn't you? And FOUR? That's a lot, isn't it? It's like a tiny little Yellow Feather... That's how I found you!"

Kali stared at him for a few seconds before letting out a deep sigh and leaning back against the back of her chair. Those bloody seals... They were protecting her as much as investigating her, really...

"My bad..." she let out, blasé. "I played it badly on that one, but I didn't think someone like you would be hanging around... I wasn't careful enough..."

"Kali...sempai?" murmured Yuuji, feeling like ice water sliding down his spine.

"You've ruined everything, Gojo." she continued, a little more bitterly, before turning her golden gaze on the teenager, a deeply sorry gleam crossing it, unsettling him. "I'm sorry, Yuuji-kun. I would have told you when the time was right... I wasn't trying to mislead you."

She sounded terribly sincere, disturbing Itadori to the core. He felt lost, with events happening far too quickly for him to assimilate them properly. Just a few minutes ago he was blushing beside the charming tourist as he placed his order, preparing to enjoy a pleasant dinner, and now it turned out that she was actually... She was...

"So..." cut in the exorcist, bringing their gaze back to him. "You're a plague."

The word had fallen like a stone into the water. Nobara leapt from her chair, trying to put some distance between herself and the stranger, instinctively reaching behind her back for her weapons.

"A scourge?" she spat, glaring at Kali, who gave her a cold look that made her even more wary. "I knew she was shady!"

"Nothing fishy about her." the interested party dropped her voice in a dangerously calm tone. "You're attracting attention, sit back down."

The schoolgirl took a step back, disconcerted.

"Kali-san is right, people are watching us, Nobara. Come and sit down." added the teacher, as serene as ever. "We're civilised people, aren't we?

"Wha... what? That... He's not a person! He's a plague!" the young girl resumed in a loud voice despite the joint warnings of her teacher and the demoness, pointing an accusing finger at the latter.

"Do you realise that what you're doing is pure racism?" hissed the demoness in exasperation, catching the teenager off guard.

"Nobara, sit down" ordered the man with the blindfold, more curtly this time.

The latter remained staring for a few moments before settling back heavily into her chair, pulling it as far away from Kali as possible though, clearly ready to attack if need be. This situation was crazy! The second-year student couldn't understand what it was all leading to... If the foreigner was a plague, she might as well be eliminated immediately, there was nothing else to do...

"You're attracting far too much attention, do you realise that?" a sulky Megumi addressed them, carrying a tray in his hands, making them all turn their gaze towards him.

The dark-haired man stared at them all with his deeply jaded cobalt eyes, sighing deeply before coming to sit down at the last free place on the table, putting down his tray with a thud. Gojo immediately stretched out his arm towards him, palm open, a radiant smile on his lips. Guessing what he wanted, the high-school student handed him his tray of chips with another sigh before quietly starting to wrap his own salad.

"Thank you, Me-gu-mi-kun!" whispered the teacher, blatantly horrifying the interested party.

"I'll give you the bill when we get back to the academy," the future exorcist blurted out, jabbing his plastic fork violently into a poor, innocent tomato wedge in a bad mood.

"What a cruel boy you are! ironised the S class exorcist before turning his attention back to the tourist, stuffing a chip in the process. "Right, let's get on with it... A plague then..."

"Come on, darling..." replied Kali with a cheeky air that made Satoru and Sukuna tick, stung to the quick by Nobara's attitude. "If I were just a nuisance, things would be a lot easier for you or me... wouldn't they?" said Kali.

"Oh? ... And would it be too much to ask for specifics?" resumed the adult from the table, scrutinising his opposite number with interest.

The latter simply stared at him intensely with her golden eyes, clearly not knowing what she should or shouldn't tell him. Gojo straightened up a little, casually taking a few more chips from his tray. She was... disconcerting. There was nothing aggressive or murderous about her attitude. True, her true aura was concealed by the seals she wore, but the fact remained that she didn't seem to be motivated by any bloodlust. When he had sensed her strange presence in the alleyway earlier and realised that she was heading straight for Itadori, he had been gripped by a certain anxiety, he had to admit.

The young teenager, brand new guest of the King of Plagues, was most innocent and candid. And he had no idea how much his new status could put him in danger, turning him into a moving target for countless people, all motivated for different reasons. And a little voice was telling him that this Kali was one of them, although he didn't yet know what she wanted with his pupil...

"Do you give up?" he continued in a caressing voice, intrigued.

"Not really..." she replied flatly, tapping a finger against his lips. "It's just... it's complicated..."

"You're awfully young, aren't you?" he dropped, catching her off guard.

"What... what?" she replied, blushing slightly.

Bingo, he'd hit the nail on the head... One way or another, it had to be linked to Sukuna's awakening, like many of the recent inconsistencies...

"You're what... A few weeks?" he continued.

"No!" she defended herself before looking away, visibly embarrassed. "... A few months..."

It was a perfect fit...

"And... where did you wake up?" he questioned, wondering if she herself wasn't one of the fingers of the King of Plagues, which would be a stone's throw.

"In Europe..." she murmured before turning her golden gaze back on her interlocutor with a fierce and determined air, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "And I know exactly what you're getting at, you know... But NO, I'm not wearing one of Sukuna-san's relics." she snapped, catching him off guard. "Everything would be so much easier for me if I had! I swear to you..."

This statement left the white-haired man speechless. She continued, however.

"And NO, I'm not a curse. Not completely anyway. That's why I'm here. I woke up a little while ago, but I don't remember a thing, not a single thing! No name, no clue, NOTHING. All I've got is a wobbly inking pentacle with half of an unfamiliar faleau relic on the back. AND. IS. EVERYTHING. And I mean absolutely no harm to Yuuji-kun, if that's one of your concerns, I was just hoping to find out more about my own relic to get an idea of where I might find the other half... Because in the meantime, I'm a... 'In-between'... "

"So that was it... you're an incomplete hybrid..." intervened Sukuna abruptly, puzzled, causing a heavy silence to fall around the table.

"Ah!" Kali finally blurted out, half rising to her feet and staring at the mouth and eye that had appeared on Itadori's cheek and was addressing her in a deep baritone voice. "Are you Sukuna-san? How do you do? I'd heard you were trapped in Yuujii-kun's body, but it's something else to see him... It's not too weird for you, is it, Yuuji?" she blurted out, fascinated, an intrigued and candid gleam in her golden eyes.

The teenager felt himself blush under her intense attention, while the demon let out a slightly sardonic laugh, amused by their interlocutor's apparent awkward innocence.

"Show some respect, shrimp. You don't know who you're messing with, do you?" the thousand-year-old demon continued in a cooing voice before his host placed his hand violently over his mouth, cutting him off.

"Don't mind him, sempai..." grumbled the demon-bearer, fleeing his interlocutor's gaze, his heart a little tight as he painfully questioned himself.

Was everything that had happened between them since this morning just a ploy? His smiles, his kindness, all that had had no other purpose than to get to Sukuna? It didn't make sense, but it weighed on her heart as if a leaden blanket had just fallen on it...

"Hey..." murmured the object of his worries, making him look up into her eyes.

She then flicked him on the forehead, catching him unawares, causing a slight electric shock between them.

"I can see what you're thinking, you know... It's true that I wanted to meet Sukuna-san. Maybe he knows something about who I am or what I am... But the fact remains that I'm delighted to have met you too, Yuuji... You and he... You make quite a pair!" she concluded with a beaming, amused smile.

"We're not a duo!" exclaimed the teenager instantly, suddenly lighter.

"We're not a duo!" cried the demon at the same time, making a mouth appear again on the back of the boy's hand, outraged by this simple idea of a team. He was the almighty King of Plagues, he didn't need anyone to dominate the others! He certainly didn't need a silly, sheepish kid! He just wanted his body and, in the meantime, to take advantage of the opportunity to discover this strange universe he didn't know.

However, their concerted intervention drew a crystalline burst of laughter from the young woman, warming Yuuji's heart a little, and causing his uninvited guest to pull a sulky pout.

"impertinent..." he said, slightly displeased. "Why would I want to help you anyway?"

"I don't know..." said the interested party, shrugging her shoulders slightly, mutinously. "Out of... curiosity? My hanging pentacle is really worth the diversions, it's so awful! "

The thousand-year-old scourge sank back into his throne of skulls, torn between annoyance at the young hybrid's impudence and the genuine curiosity that her very nature aroused in him. A hybrid... So she was an 'original' hybrid. If what she said was correct, then he did indeed know more about her than many of these modern times with their short memories... The beginnings of demonic inking in human bodies dated back to his reign as Scourge, a thousand years ago. It was a difficult, uncertain art, with an appallingly low success rate... If, as the golden-eyed girl claimed, her pentacle was 'dreadful' or possessed only half a relic, it was rather astonishing that she could even be alive... It was rather... intriguing...

"Far be it from me to disturb you"... Gojo cut him off in his thoughts, causing the millennial demon to immediately feel a violent surge of discontent. "That's all well and good, but it still doesn't tell me what I'm going to do with you, Kali.

The latter turned her gaze back to the exorcism teacher, a childish pout forming on her lips.

"What do you mean? I didn't do anything wrong." she simply let go, sitting back down in her chair, picking up a chip from her own tray, taking it between her lips before grimacing as she realised it was cold.

"You're a nuisance! "Nobara replied, still exasperated by this unlikely situation.

"So... No, still not...Apparently, I'm an... Incomplete hybrid', it's not the same!" the stranger replied, echoing Sukuna's words, forcing a smile from him despite himself. "I'm part human. And, anyway, I still say that wanting to kill a scourge just because it's a scourge is pure, unadulterated racism."

"I... What..." the teenager stammered, taken aback. "Fushiguro, say something!"

The dark-haired man, who had been the only one all this time to do what they'd come here to do in the first place, i.e. have dinner, glanced blandly at his comrade as he chewed on a salad leaf.

"In absolute terms... what she's saying is defensible." he finally let out, causing the schoolgirl to grumble.

"But you're all crazy! If that's the way it's going to be, I'm out of here!" she declared, putting her money where her mouth was, grabbing her things before striding angrily out of the restaurant.

"She's got quite a temper! "Kali laughed, a little embarrassed to be creating such a melodrama.

"You can say that again!" agreed Yuuji, smiling broadly.

"Do you eat humans?" cut in the snowy-haired man again, sensing that if he let these two (three counting Sukuna, whom he guessed was interested in the hybrid) resume their conversation, they would never get anywhere.

The question dropped like a stone in the water, stretching an awkward silence over the table. Only the dark-haired man's obstinate chewing could be heard.

"So... er..." she began, hesitantly. "It's happened to me... But in my defence, they were really nasty, nasty plague masters... and... er... I was... Really... hungry...?" she tried, flashing an unconvinced smile at a sceptical Gojo. "Afterwards," she continued, "I usually only eat nasty, nasty plagues and very human food. I'm being polite."

"No babies?" questioned Itadori earnestly, staring intently at her, coming to capture the surprised young woman's attention.

"Erk..." she let out, a disgusted pout crossing her sweet face. "I need occult energy to stabilise my pentacle, what do you want me to do with a baby? Plagues, level 1 or 2 if there's really nothing else, plague masters who come to break feet at the limit, exorcists... if they attacked first of course..." she added with a smile to Satoru, teasingly. "But ordinary humans? A lot of complications for very little satiety! You don't realise how annoying it is to make a body disappear... "

"Ignorant..." breathed Sukuna, an inveterate lover of human flesh, finding his mouth once again slammed shut by an expert hand from Yuuji, who smiled at the hybrid's response, quite reassured.

Even if she was part plague, she was nothing like the other weirdo he was harbouring!

"Well, Gojo?" She asked, turning to the man who was still staring at her, a little distraught. "What are we going to do? Are we going to beat the crap out of each other like savages, or do you think I'm not a threat to the population - which I'm not, by the way - and have a nice, happy dinner at last?"

Satoru remained silent for a while, staring through his blindfold at the European woman, whose nature was complex and rare. She was out of the ordinary in her own way, rather like Yuuji. She didn't really seem bloodthirsty, at least not at the moment. But it was always possible that this apparent gentleness was just a decoy, cleverly staged under a heap of seals. Who she would be once her feral nature was released, he had no idea... And yet... He wanted to believe it. She had destroyed the scourge of shibuya in just a few moments. She had let her guard down, leaving traces of her passage only in her haste to see Itadori again. But she clearly had no desire to harm the teenager. He could always give her the benefit of the doubt and destroy her if it turned out he'd been wrong in the first place...

"No humans," he finally said with a smile.

Yuuji drew a sharp breath, realising that he had been holding it in, worried about his teacher's decision. He didn't want him to kill her...

"Okay... No humans... Masters of the Evil Evil Plagues, may I?" replied Kali mischievously as she rested an elbow on the table, coming to rest her chin in the palm of his hand.

"... Only if they attack first. And they're dangerous for the population," Gojo agreed with the tip of his lips.

"ooooh..." the young woman blurted out, eyebrows raised, clearly delighted with this answer. "I believe we have a deal, Mr. S-Class Exorcist..." said Gojo.

"I won't hesitate to kill you if you lose it..." added Satoru, looking much more serious.

"I didn't expect me from you..." she murmured, feline, leaning towards him a little.

"And no more stealing relics", he added, giving his interlocutor a cold shower.

"But noooooo!" She blurted out, grudgingly, leaning back against his file and running her hands over her face. "You were almost cool until then!"

"I KNEW IT!" Exulted the infinity-eyed man, leaping to his feet, startling Yuuji and Megumi, who continued to follow the entire conversation with one ear.

"It was you, all that flying!" He said, pointing an accusing, victorious finger at her. "As soon as you said 'half a relic' I understood! I'm too good! "

"THESE BORROWS!" corrected the hybrid sulkily, coming to cross her arms under her chest. "I gave them all back, those lousy relics! I only want mine!"

"More. More. Flights. Relics. Relics." insisted Gojo as he sat back down, pointing a finger at the young woman. "You can't imagine the mess you make by unsealing these items every time."

"So you're helping me find mine," the would-be thief replied point-blank, pushing her hand away with a casual gesture. "Once I've found it, I'll stop poking around your old shrines looking for it. It's a very honest deal I think."

"We'll see about that... I'd have to see which half of the relic I'm dealing with first..." Satoru conceded, slumping back into his chair.

"I'd show it to you but... I think... toplessness is frowned upon in public... isn't it? "she purred, a little mischievously, as she tugged at the wide, gaping collar of her jumper, sliding it along the teasing curve of one of her milky shoulders.

Yuuji, who had been quietly sipping his soda as he listened attentively to the exchange between his teacher and the hybrid, suddenly swallowed hard at her words, half choking as he began to cough loudly. He could feel the red rising to his cheeks as he felt the fizzy liquid rise up his nose, drowning him in embarrassment and soda.

"Virgin." dropped Sukuna, who hadn't lost an inch of skin from his bloodshot gaze, though, enjoying the young woman's impertinence and tantalising curves, thinking he'd love to check her out properly, teach her where she belonged...

"My God, Yuuji! Are you all right?" Worried the half-flail, straightening up to lean towards him, the neckline of her wide jumper giving the teenager a bird's-eye view of the dark lace bra that encircled her generous, enticing breasts, making him burst into complete flames.

"Apetizing..." purred the millennial demon aloud as Yuuji looked away, his blood boiling in his veins.

Kali then realised the extent of the cleavage she'd just flaunted under the nose of the young schoolboy and the king of the plagues, setting her cheeks ablaze as she jerked upright, wrapping her arms around her chest

"Pervert!" she spat, crimson.

"By... sorry, I didn't mean it!" Itadori apologised flatly, almost pressing her forehead against the table in shame.

"But no, Yuuji, not you..." corrected the young woman, sorry for the misunderstanding she had caused. "HIM!" she said, pointing to the high-schooler's cheek where a smirk stretched across his face, her bloody eye impaling the young woman with carnal envy.

Gojo, for his part, watched the scene in silence, also observing Megumi who was quietly continuing her meal without missing a single crumb of what was happening, on the lookout. The S-rank exorcist had once again taken a strange creature under his wing. But he liked the way she was, he just hoped he wasn't wrong about her... And he could already see, from what was happening before his eyes after just a few minutes, that his presence, in addition to those of his protégés, promised to lead to adventures he wouldn't know what to do with...

"

A word from the author:

M: Happy Monday everyone! Thanks for following this story! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! As you might have guessed, Sukuna is a pervert!

Yuuji, Nobara and Gojo (in unison): Pervert, pervert, pervert!

Sukuna: You're talking about me, but there are two others who've had a good look at themselves too...

Yuuji (crimson): But... No way!

Gojo: Nop. No evidence, no crime.

M: In any case, the cards are down... The serious (and sexy) stuff can begin! See you soon for the rest!