Kagome had forgotten how easy going back to normalcy was. One would think that, after experiencing the kind of night she had, going back to teaching in her mundane life would be near impossible. To be fair, all of Japan found the first week after what were called the 'terror attacks' of Shibuya impossible to navigate. But life moved on, and, with no revendication made for the attacks, while conspiracy theories ran rampant, most people simply went back to their lives.
Among them, Kagome at least looked like she was one of the people having the easier time with it. She was approached as a shoulder to cry on by her students and colleagues alike, a rock, reliable, always present, always patient, always listening. Truth be told, she didn't think she felt as traumatized as others did — nor as she should be. The experience had been horrifying, the loss of lives, devastating, but while she had never seen something on that scale before, she had witnessed entire villages massacred, seen women's souls be torn away from them for the sake of being consumed by an undead being, and felt herself surrounded by evil in its purest form.
Then, she'd gone back to school and passed her maths test, and she'd done that over and over again for a year. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
Shibuya was likely worse than any of the events she'd lived through, she was well aware of that. Yet she'd walked away from it mostly unscathed, and the burns on her hands were already fading, thanks to her mother's remedies.
She was… fine. True, at night, the guilt for her lack of lasting trauma ate at her, that gnawing feeling that she should be in a worst state than she was. During the day, she tried to make up for it by shouldering as much of people's pain as possible. It was a compromise that suited her, one she could live with, one that kept at bay the fear that she was reacting to such a tragedy the wrong way.
Throughout the weeks that followed Shibuya, she kept the white-haired man in a corner of her mind. He'd said he'd come find her, but she hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of him since then. Him and his people were probably busy, she assumed. They had to be the first in line to deal with the aftermath of the event. There was a curiosity within her about what the event was, exactly, what the things she had dubbed the 'creatures' actually were, but she had no way to satiate that curiosity, and so she shrugged it off and went on with her day.
She couldn't get in touch with him anyway.
Yes, she had looked him up. Yes, it did, in fact, deeply frustrate her that she knew so little of the world that surrounded her, that she could be caught so unprepared and that the lives of so many people could be lost in the process. Yes, she would like to make sure it never happened again.
But all she could do, for now, was wait for him to show up.
And kami, did she hate waiting.
She didn't realize right away that the whistle meant that time had come. It had been a few weeks since the attack by then, and it was yet another peaceful day. They were getting shorter, and when she left her house in the morning, air came out of her mouth in puffs of smoke, but the sky had been clear all day. She had tilted her head up to feel the touch of the cold winter sun before walking into the school. After that, it had been a long day of teaching — history, what else? At the end of the day, once the students were done cleaning the room for the class of which she was the homeroom teacher, she'd sat behind the desk, as she always did, in case someone wanted to come talk to her.
Outside the window, some students were running laps despite the cold weather, but she was inside and warm.
In times like these, the world felt completely human to her.
She didn't pay attention to the whistle at first, but she did glance up when she heard a pleasant, and vaguely familiar, deep voice saying her name.
"…Miss Higurashi's classroom?"
"This one," a voice she was pretty sure belonged to Hana, a student she'd had every year since she had started high school, chirped.
"Thank you," the other voice chimed.
Kagome, who'd been resting her head on her closed fist with her elbow propped on the table to look out the window, much like her students did when they were bored, pushed herself back up, furrowing her eyebrows. She couldn't, for the life of her, figure out which student that voice belonged to.
The silhouette that appeared behind the screen door confused her even more. Very tall, with long limbs and messy hair that were probably against school's rules. The only thing she could think of was that she should remember his name, because the PE teacher would love to have that guy on the basketball team.
Then the door slid open, and she stopped feeling like a bad teacher for not being to identify him.
Behind small, round sunglasses, blue eyes stared at her.
"Hi there, Ka-go-me," Gojo Satoru grinned at her, rolling her name on his tongue, syllable by syllable.
She blinked, still not sure she appreciated the familiarity. Well, she didn't mind it either, but her, uh, lived experiences meant she didn't often care when people only used her name. It was one of those things she'd had to relearn, since coming back.
"You came to my school?" she asked instead of returning the greeting.
Without being invited, he strolled inside the room, sliding the door close behind him. He walked around the class, looking at projects and posters she'd put on the walls. Students didn't have much time to themselves, and spent most of their days in here, so she liked to make it as homely as possible. Dressed in all black, he stood out clearly against the cream walls, starkly out of place in a school where the uniforms were made of white shirts and blue pants or skirts.
"Well, you're not that easy of a person to track," he commented, back turned towards her as he examined a project on Feudal Era that was one of her favorites a student had made this year. "Have you even heard of social media? You should consider it."
"I would have given you information if you wanted it," she answered, brows furrowing as mild annoyance started to creep within her. "You didn't ask."
He hummed vaguely, and it didn't sound like he cared much about the point he was making.
"How have you been since that day, by the way?" he asked, still touring the room.
"I'm… alright, I suppose," she said, choosing her words one at a time. "It was hard in the beginning, but…" A sigh. "I did what I could." It was hard to put words on what she felt, exactly. There was nothing she could have done about the pain that had already been inflicted in Shibuya, but what she had done. Free the souls she could, offer some dignity, and make sure it would never, ever, happen again.
"See," Gojo said, spinning around to face her, a smile breaking on his face, "that's what I don't get." With wide strides, he started to cross the classroom, heading towards her. "The most seasoned exorcists got sick while cleaning up Shibuya. Grown men and women, breaking down crying, with some real unfortunate timing in some cases, by the way, and you…" He stopped right in front of her desk, leaning towards her, blue eyes wide with interest behind the glasses, until their noses were almost touching. "You're alright." He lowered the glasses to the tip of his nose, eyes taking her in fully, searching her face, her expression, her soul, maybe, for answers. "Who are you, Kagome Higurashi?"
For a moment, Kagome stared back at him, breath traitorously catching in her throat. His tone was excited, his expression fascinated, and she… she wasn't sure what to make of it.
"What about you?" she asked finally.
He blinked, smile falling to turn into a confused pout.
"How have you been since that day?"
He stood upright, half-sitting on the desk, one foot still on the ground.
"Well, that's different. I'm the strongest exorcist there is."
"You said it made even the most seasoned exorcists sick. And they weren't there to watch it happen," she argued.
They didn't make it happen, she didn't add.
"Yeah, but they're not me," he said, cocky grin stretching his lips again.
"In that case," she answered, "let's say they're not me either."
He snorted at that, examining her while she just stared back, her expression unchanged.
"Fair," he smiled. "Is that all the answers you're willing to give?"
Kagome shrugged. It was true that there were things she didn't want to divulge to a stranger. Her past and the things she'd seen were among those things. But there was a lot that she was willing to share. She just wasn't sure where to start.
"Those things, back there," she said slowly. "Not the… former humans, but the… the ones that weren't humans. You called them… curses, right? What… are they?"
He looked at her pensively, like she was a curious animal he'd stumbled upon.
"Curses are born from the unchanneled cursed energy produced by humans. Negative emotions, if you will. Did you really not know that?"
She shook her head, eyes lifting towards the ceiling as she thought of the implications of that.
"That's why there were so many of them here," she said, talking to herself more than she was talking to him. High schools had to be a place where negative emotions were running high.
"Oh, that's for sure," Gojo said. "But it's peaceful now, right? One might even say… too peaceful, don't you think?"
There were the blue eyes again, shining with mischief from behind the glasses.
"Oh, I cleaned it when I got here," Kagome answered, non-plussed. "I wasn't going to let them mess with the kids."
"Hmm, but they should be coming back," Gojo insisted, starting to lean closer again. "With a place that big, full of non-sorcerers… It should be impossible to keep it devoid of curses. And the air here is very light, don't you think?"
She blinked at him. He was talking like she was hiding something and he was trying to make her admit it. Problem was, of course, that she wasn't.
"You're saying I have something to do with it, but I haven't really been doing anything," she said slowly. "I tried to put up a barrier, but the school was too big. I put up a couple talismans, but I never bothered to refill them. Other than that…" A shrug. "I don't know. There just weren't many of them after a while."
"A barrier?" Gojo repeated. "Talismans? How do you— Can you use cursed energy? You don't look like you have any."
"I thought you just said cursed energy was for, well, curses," Kagome frowned, annoyed at his vaguely accusatory tone. "Why would I have that?"
"Everyone has negative emotions," he answered, staring at her like she was stupid. The conversation sure was starting to make her have some negative emotions about him. "Exorcists also produce them, but they know how to channel it so they can use it in battle, or to create barriers and make talismans, among other things."
"That doesn't seem very healthy," Kagome mumbled, again more for herself than for him. "How does it feel, that energy? When you produce it, I mean?"
In her body, running through her veins and swirling under her skin, spiritual energy was warm and electrifying. She had never bothered to question where it came from, understanding, on some level, that it was a connection to every living thing. It was belonging, and thankfulness, and nature, and humanity, and Earth, and life, all at once, and all within her. It was a deep knowledge that she was welcome, that her life, and that of everyone else, was a blessing. It came to her as easy as breathing, surrounded her and filled her, every moment of her life. Even before she'd fallen down the well, it had been there, dormant, but still allowing her to move through life, in peace and content.
In front of her, as she was contemplating all of that, Gojo just shrugged.
"It's a weapon. It doesn't matter how it feels."
That… that was not reassuring to her. If anything, she found it more worrying.
"Okay," she said slowly. "I… don't think that's what I use. I take it that's what you have?"
Around him, she could see a very light, blue glow, so close to his skin it was almost impossible — but it was definitely there, and had been since he'd walked in. She hadn't been able to see it through the door, yet she couldn't miss it now.
"What else could you be using?"
Again, there was that interest she'd heard in his voice on that fateful night, and earlier in the conversation, like she was an enigma he wanted to solve.
"We— We usually call it spiritual energy," she said, stumbling over her words.
"And who would that 'we' be?" he insisted. He was leaning closer again, back in her space, entirely focused on her. He didn't seem like the type of person to even be able to give all of his attention to one person, or one thing for that matter, and to be on the receiving end of all of his usually spread out focus was— she wasn't sure. Overwhelming. Intoxicating. Dizzying.
"Priestesses," she answered nonetheless, her voice remaining even despite the way she felt. "Mikos, like that man said. Monks and priests too, I guess," she added after a brief pause.
"The one miko I know definitely uses cursed energy," he noted, sounding skeptical.
Oh kami. Was he really going to mansplain priestesses to her?
"There are many ways to be a miko," she said.
"Well, you're a lot more powerful than her. She should have chosen your way."
Ouch.
"How'd you get rid of that curse anyway?"
His tone was more serious this time, less playful.
"The one with the long hair?" Kagome asked, waiting for his nod of confirmation. "I just… purified him." Just like she had done it for the Jewel, just like she did when she shot her arrows or like she'd learned to do with her bare hands since then. Like most things that came with her powers, it was all natural to her, and she wasn't sure how to explain it better than that. He was a fire and she'd extinguished him, pouring her spiritual energy onto his… cursed energy, then, until there was none of it left, and once it was all gone, so was he.
"Hm," Gojo said, expression turning thoughtful. "This isn't going to work."
She blinked.
"I'm sorry?"
"You don't make sense to me. I don't think I make sense to you. So," he lifted a finger as if he'd just gotten some genius idea, "we're going to have to clear that up, if we want to understand what's happening here."
That sounded fine to her, actually, if a little anticlimactic. Surprisingly sensible, too, and unexpected given the way he'd behaved since waltzing into her classroom like he owned the place.
"You should come with me to JujutsuHigh," he suggested, offering her a toothy grin and jumping off the desk, as if to invite her to follow.
…and they were back on the territory of things that made less than sense.
"Are you saying I should follow a stranger with powers I don't understand into a place I know nothing about?"
He stopped to consider her words.
"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. Glad we're on the same page."
Kami, give her strength. She raised her fingers to rub soothing circles against her temples. She was more patient now than she was at fifteen, but after a whole day of teaching teenagers, she could feel it running thin.
"And why would I do that?"
"Aw, you wound me," he said, leaning over the desk once more. He propped an elbow on the table, placing his chin on his knuckle, and grinned. "Don't you trust me, Ka-go-me?"
Her first instinct was to say no. It didn't even have to be rude — she didn't like being rude. Just say "no, thank you" and move on with her life, no matter how badly her curiosity was eating at her. But she remembered that night, in Shibuya, and something tightened in her chest. She remembered how tired he looked, killing hundreds — thousands? — of the former humans to save the ones that were still themselves, taking that burden entirely on his shoulders. She remembered him taking her outside and calling her a cab, so she wouldn't be forced into this world she didn't know.
Now, looking into shining blue eyes through the dark lenses, she did doubt that he fully knew what they would be walking into, and yet…
Her lips parted. His eyes dropped down to them, following her movements.
"Miss Higurashi! Are you still—"
Kagome jumped as the door slid open brutally, two of her students coming running in and pausing in the doorway, uncertain eyes going back and forth between her and Gojo.
Gojo, who was clearly unfazed by the sudden intrusion, and just turned his head towards them, greeting the two young girls with a lazy wave.
"Hi there."
"Sakura, Misaki, how can I help you?" Kagome asked. Her voice was as sweet as ever, even if she could feel her cheeks burning. She hadn't done anything wrong, and she refused to feel embarrassed for this, dammit.
"Oh," Sakura said, shifting her weight from her left foot to the right and back, eyes darting from Gojo's face to Kagome's, "um, you know, I had forgotten an essay we were supposed to turn in today at home, so I figured if I just grabbed it at home and ran back I could give it to you before you left and you'd know I wasn't lying when I said I'd done it."
She said all that in one breath, and Kagome couldn't help but smile fondly. Sweet, sweet girl.
"I didn't think you were lying," she answered, extending her hand, "but you can give it to me if you have it here."
With a big grin, the girl walked across the room over to her, pushing the paper in her hand, before turning around and walking back to her friend, who was still staring at Gojo, mouth agape. He shot the two of them a wink, and Kagome watched as the two flushed and giggled girlishly. Ah, teenagers…
"Is there something else I can do for you?" Kagome asked, tone clearly indicating they were supposed to leave.
"Miss Higurashi," Misaki, who had always been the bolder one out of the two, started, eyes filled with stars, "is that your boyfriend?"
Gojo's laugh burst out of him, light and natural, while Kagome sighed. Okay, she'd walked straight into that one.
"Girls, that is a private matter."
"That's not a no," Gojo hummed from next to her, and she shot him a dark look.
"Also, no."
"Aww," the girls whined. "But you'd be so cute together!"
"Girls, out," Kagome said. They obeyed right away, giggling as they ran away, while she turned to look sternly at Gojo. "Why would you encourage them?"
"They looked so happy about it," he grinned, "just wanted to give them a little hope. Also, I'm a great catch, I'll have you know."
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She didn't need her students poking their noses into her personal life — it wasn't their place, but also, she already had three friends who did just that at every chance they got, thank you very much.
"Alright, so, shall we go to JujutsuHigh?" Gojo asked, dropping the matter the second he got bored with it.
"Sure," she said.
"Right, I figured you'd say that, so I— Huh?"
She stood up, starting to gather her belongings.
"I'll go with you."
"But why?"
He sounded flabbergasted, and she had to say, there was a certain pleasure in catching him so completely off-guard.
"Because I do think you deserve to be trusted," she answered as she was putting on her coat, looking at him and noting how young, how boyish he looked as he stared at her, eyes wide and mouth open in confusion. "Whether you'll keep my trust, that's up to you," she added.
She liked trusting people. She trusted him, and she trusted Sakura when she promised her she'd done the work, she'd just forgotten it at home, Miss Higurashi, really, and she trusted Daiki when he swore, with tears in his eyes, that he wasn't the one who'd stolen Takumi's shoes from his locker in the back of the class. She could take back that trust, but everyone got their chance.
"Oh," was all he said, and she didn't know then how hard it was to make the Gojo Satoru run out of things to say.
"But not right now," she added. "I need to get home and grade some papers. My last class is at two on Thursday, though, so if you give me an address—"
"Nah, I'll come get you," he interrupted her, words coming back to him in an easy drawl. "It's a date then, right?"
She rolled her eyes once more.
"Thursday at two," he said cheerfully, despite her ignoring him, walking by her side, both hands behind his head as she made her way out of the building. "It's not that far from here, probably won't take too long anyway."
She nodded along and, as they were crossing the courtyard, she spotted, sitting on a wall, a familiar looking cat with golden eyes. Its two tails moved slowly behind it, and she couldn't help but grin. Yokai were rare in the city, but she'd spotted more of them around the school lately. This one, of course, was an old friend, and she always felt thankful when she came to check on her. She shot her a wink. Gojo turned around, looking in the same direction as her, but by then she'd already jumped off and disappeared behind the wall.
"Was there something there?" he asked, sounding puzzled.
"Just a cat," she said innocently.
"Is that so?"
It didn't sound like he believed her, eyes lingering on the spot where Kirara had just been, and she looked at him, trying to understand what it was that was puzzling him. Could he tell that there had been a yokai there? Curses felt different, of that she was certain, but she didn't know what was going on with his eyes. Why the shades inside in the dead of winter, why the blindfold — did he use something other than sight? She didn't have a clue.
"Alright then," he said lightly, shrugging it off as they reached the front gate with such ease it was her turn to be caught off-guard. "I'll let you go from here then. Don't forget, Ka-go-me."
With that, he turned around, waving at her as he walked away, and her eyes followed his dark silhouette thoughtfully, until he disappeared around the corner as easily as he'd appeared back into her life.
She didn't think she could forget about him, even if she wanted to.
And, so far… she didn't want to.
dani1361: I'm glad you liked it! I hope you'll enjoy the way I'll handle it ^-^
XD: Looool, yeah you can for sure expect that to make a comeback!
581: Thank you, I'm so happy you liked it! I hope you enjoyed this new installment!
Clara Bow: Omg I love you for this question I've been thinking about it since you left that comment lol. It depends on the lines in the song but generally Kagome is Travis and Gojo is Taylor. Kagome is the trophy and she's running over to him, and he's the one who thinks this only happens every few lifetimes (not literally but in his life, there has only been one person who's made his view of the world shift the way Kagome will and that was Geto), also the 'I haven't come around in so long, but I'm coming back so strong' again referencing the fact that he doesn't have a lot of relationships with people in general, not even including romantic ones. But the chorus is Kagome talking: 'call the amateurs and cut 'em from the teams', 'ditch the clowns, get the crown, baby I'm the one to beat'. The child's play back in school being forgiven into [their] rule works both ways: Gojo forgiving himself for Geto, and Kagome offering him a clean slate for the guilt he feels for back then.
Rambled a bit here but I was so thrilled to read that question lol.
Shuuwai: No spoilers on the circumstances, but he is definitely unlikely to take this lying down eheh. I'm happy you enjoyed this, thank you for your kind words!
MoEmiLuna: Thank you so much, I'm happy you enjoyed it!
bblgege: The way I snorted at your username lol. I do want to publish them, but they require much more planning and plotting and I know that if I don't go through those steps, I'll probably write myself into a corner or not know where to go, so that will wait a little longer, but I'm glad you're interested!
A/N: And here is chapter two! Thank you all SO much for your enthusiasm on chapter one, it truly gave me wings to finish this one. It's less intense than the first one was, so I hope it wasn't too boring and that you still liked it.
As a note for people who don't have an account, don't hesitate to leave a username so I can reply to you if you'd like that, as long as it's manageable for me I'd be happy to (and also so I know you're not a bot lol). I do have a Tumblr, as someone asked about that: dyaz-stories. Don't hesitate to get in touch over there if you'd like to, I haven't posted this story there yet but there's other stuff if you're interested! This story is also posted on Ao3 if you like the formatting over there better.
I don't think I'll have a chapter out in the coming week, but I'm hoping to have one the week after that. If you would like to support me, don't hesitate to leave a comment, I truly thrive off of that. All feedback is welcome as long as it's polite!
Thank you all for reading 3