Chapter 5.- Cutting ties

Satoru had never truly understood why people got nervous when they were called to face the old bastards.

They were a bunch of greedy, spineless cowards, but everyone else always seemed tense, so the sorcerer somewhat expected her to react in a similar way. Sure, he didn't exactly tell her who she was meeting or the sort of position they had, but little Miss Archer had already proved herself to be quick on the uptake. Figuring out she was meeting the leaders of the society she was about to get stuck in shouldn't have been that hard. And yet, Kagome's demeanor remained relatively relaxed. Yes, there'd been obvious frustration and annoyance in her stance, but he couldn't find any hint of worried anxiety tainting her motions during the meeting. Almost as if the people in the room were just regular random civilians, though he should probably make a mental note to start explaining things to her in a bit more detail. If she really came from another dimension or reality or whatever, then she needed to expect in this world before the week was over. So many things to do, with so little time to do it.

Pushing those thoughts away, Satoru glanced back at the miko. The confident demeanor was gone now, and though she did her best not to show it, there was tension in her form as they walked up the stone stairs of the Higurashi shrine.

"Alright." Coming to a stop, the young woman turned around to face him. "Listen, just let me handle it and keep quiet."

"You know, family members can be told about it," Satoru drawled.

Kind of…exceptions were mostly made for children from non-sorcerer families that needed help controlling their posers ASAP, but they were already dancing around way more important rules, one more wouldn't make too much of a difference.

"Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should." Kagome shook her head, a wry smile on her lips. "Besides, we don't really have the time to spend here. It's my turn to get a story."

"Whatever suits you…so, what's your cover?" Shrugging, he placed his hands in his pockets.

"Like I said, I'll deal with it." Alright, she was still being vague now. "Now give me your hand. I'm not about to find out what happens when you try to pass through my barriers right now."

"Barriers?"

Pulling down his shades, iridescent blue scanned the area. Aside from one of his clan members subtly hiding nearby, there was nothing for him to see, although, now that he thought about it, none of the curses that usually lurked in the streets seemed interested in trying to go up the stairs of the shrine. Almost like they couldn't sensed it was there. Irritating as it was to admit, the sorcerer would've likely walked right past this place without noticing there was anything different. This wasn't quite the same as before.

"I can see the shrine," he stated.

"Huh?" The young woman turned to look at the shrine before turning around, understanding in her eyes. "Oh, that's because this is a different type of barrier than the one I used at the mall." Unwilling to wait for her, she grabbed his hand, pulling him up the rest of the stairs. "It'd be too hard to explain why a whole building just vanished… I'll have to make sure to charge it up."

"Oh, so your barriers can be kept up even without you focusing on them."

"Not all of them." Again, she was nonchalantly showing the sort of versatility many clans would kill for. "This type of barrier was the more convenient one."

Blue eyes caught a hint of a smile on her lips.

Was she…oh, she was playing with him, making things as confusing as possible just as she threatened before.

Letting go of his hand, the young woman hurriedly to the side of the shrine building as soon as they reached the landing, and he had to fight the urge to just pop out in front of her to see her jump. None of them was sure how her technique would react if he actively used his cursed energy within her barriers, which left him with no choice but to trail after her to a massive tree cordoned by a sacred rope. In a practiced motion, the young woman jumped to stand right in front of it, one hand resting on top of what had to be one of her paper talismans, eyes closed. This time, he could see it, the soft pink light enveloping her, rising in waves as it seemed to transfer to the slip of paper. More importantly, Satoru could feel it this time. Warmth radiated from this foreign energy, and if he focused, he could notice the tendril of these intense callings he felt at the mall. Those contradictory urges to get closer and stay away.

During her little show of power yesterday, the sorcerer had managed to both feel and see her spiritual energy and yet, these instinctual impulses had been missing. Back then, too, it wasn't until she faced the special grade that he noticed this odd particularity of hers. That was something he was going to have to consider before the test. No matter who the old farts picked as an observant, they were sure to be more of a pain in the ass, and it wouldn't matter which urge was stranger; if they could feel it, they'd try to get their hands on her. It was too late for the old bastards to try and cover the loopholes he'd exploited, but they'd get even more paranoid if they realized her power could have a direct effect on sorcerers. Covetous assholes that they were, they could easily react to either impulse, and there was no way in hell Satoru would sit on the sides and wait to see what they thought would give them more control. Of course, for him to come up with a valid strategy, he'd need to understand how this all worked, but for all that he could apparently see her power whenever she was actually using it, his Six Eyes couldn't dissect it.

Involving others wasn't ideal. The white-haired sorcerer would prefer it if no one ever found out this little bit of info, but with how much of an unknown the young woman was, he needed to find out how regular sorcerers would react to being exposed to different levels of her energy.

Broken out of his reverie by a single clap, Satoru watched the soft pink fade away as she moved back to the stone path. There was still some tension in her gait, but he could see her determination firmly set in those azure eyes of hers. Nodding to herself, the girl turned his way and started to lead the way to the back. The two-story house he could see was far more humble compared to the shrine in the front, but that wasn't what caught his attention.

The middle-aged woman coming out of the small building's front door looked similar enough to the petite archer for him not to have to wonder who she was. Unlike Kagome, who was the image of perfect health aside from the slight tension in her form, the older woman was very obviously exhausted. Dark bags under her brown eyes betrayed sleepless nights, black hair messily pushed back along with wrinkled clothes were clear indications of how much of a hurry she'd been to get out that morning…so this is how a mother was supposed to look after her child went radio silence for days on end. According to the minion he'd sent to monitor the shrine, Mrs. Higurashi had left at the crack of dawn yesterday and had spent most of the day going to the places with the lists of potential victims of the mall disaster. The older woman would likely worry herself sick had this gone on…

More importantly, Satoru could see the woman's cursed energy, anxious and a bit chaotic but surprisingly weak, even for a non-sorcerer. For how long had this family been living inside of her barriers again?

A gasp left the woman, a stack of papers slipping from her hands as she finally noticed her daughter standing in front of the house.

"Kagome?" Her voice was hoarse, eyes widening in disbelief.

"…morning, Mama."

"Kagome!" The papers fell to the ground as the woman ran towards her daughter, locking her in an embrace. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?"

"I'm fine, really." Miss Archer's voice was beyond tense as she tried to pull away.

"Where were you?" Emotion dripped from every word, and Satoru had to resist the urge to shuffle. He felt like an intruder. "Did something happen?"

Taking the chance to escape the older woman's arms, Kagome took a step back, glancing at him before taking a deep breath and turning to her mother. "I'm alright, I just broke my phone, I was with Satoru."

"Satoru?"

"Gojo Satoru," he said, waving as she noticed him for the first time. "It's a pleasure."

"…who?"

It was obvious the older woman was still reeling from the shock of finding her daughter to process what was going on. Still, the sorcerer grinned and gave another wave. Confusion was clearly painted on her face, but it looked like Kagome wasn't interested in giving her any kind of detailed explanation. So, she really was trying to keep her family away from the corrupted pit of the jujutsu world. While her phone did break in the mall, they'd bought a new one yesterday afternoon, and when he swiped it this morning, his was the only number saved. He wasn't sure any contact that could be traced to this place ever would. Well, the only thing he'd promised was to keep the Higurashi family alive. He certainly wasn't about to meddle with someone else's personal issues.

"Satoru is the person I've been staying with for the past few days." Azure eyes refused to look at the older woman's face. "He offered me a job, and I'll be moving in with him, so I just came to get my stuff."

"H-hold on…moving in with…what do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said, I'm moving out." Even he could tell her smile was forced. "It's better for everyone anyway. No need to keep wasting money on hospital bills."

"Money has never…!"

"Now, now," Satoru cursed himself the instant the words were out of his mouth, his hand stopping the distressed mother from grabbing her daughter as Kagome made a run for the house. "I know it's a bit abrupt, but I promise I'll take good care of her. Plus, the pay is pretty good."

Brown eyes glared at him as the older woman snatched her wrist from his grasp.

Lifting his hands in surrender he simply stood when Mrs. Higurashi hurried after her daughter. Getting involved with this wasn't something he should've tried to do in the first place. Kagome herself had asked him to keep his mouth shut; she should be able to deal with her own mother. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Satoru walked back to the supposed sacred tree.

Clans had always worked on a hierarchy system. If a member disappeared for days on end, there was only one acceptable reason for it. Regardless of what happened to delay a member's return, punishment was sure to follow, and even death was only acceptable half of the time as an excuse for missing a deadline. Of course, all of that was out of the picture for him the moment he took over as the head of the Gojo clan, though even before that Satoru could usually dismiss severe punishment, courtesy of being the strongest. Every clan cared only about their reputation. As for sorcerers with civilian backgrounds…well, Satoru wasn't really sure. From what little he knew, they seemed to keep their distance from their non-sorcerer family. It'd make sense; they were always overworked and understaffed, and without backing, they often got the shortest stick of a bunch of toothpicks when it came to mission assignments. Now that he thought about it, the white-haired man knew nothing about Shoko's family. Was she close with her parents? Did she have any siblings? Was her family still alive in the first place?

What about Suguru?

How often had he spoken to his parents before killing them?

Pushing down the vile that was threatening to rise through his throat, Satoru turned his attention back to the paper talisman.

Variety seemed to be the keyword when it came to little Miss Archer's powers. So far, he'd seen three different types of barriers, all of them created with different kind of steps each. And that was without taking into account the archery he'd yet to see, her various paper slips, the way she channeled her energy, and her healing. Annoyance quickly took over his turbulent emotions. There was no way the old bastards would give him the full seven days, and the strength of whatever enemy they'd throw at her would be a coin toss. Frustration mixed with his irritation easily. It didn't matter what the circumstances behind the mall confrontation were, she still ended up passing out for more than a day. Detailed chats just wouldn't be enough to get a good picture of what she could do; even dropping her in front of another special grade would likely fall short. He'd end up having to send her to that damned test half-blind.

Quite honestly, he knew they'd oppose ranking her based on his word alone, but he'd planned to pressure them, they'd cave in sooner or later. If Miss Archer was confident she could take any test, Satoru didn't have any otherchoice but to hope her assessment was fair.

Still, they needed to jump into training as soon as they could.

Keen hearing caught hurried steps before Kagome stormed into his view. Two bags were haphazardly thrown on her shoulder, filled to the brim. In her hands was what looked like a completely average traditional wooden bow and a closed bag with what had to be a quiver and a bunch of arrows. Whatever semblance of calm she'd managed to gather eroded by a conversation he was glad he didn't get to listen to. Azure eyes were darkened by barely restrained tears, but the young woman didn't falter, her movements firm even as she shook her head. Her grip was strong when she took his hand and pulled him down the stone stairs in a sprint. Word refused to leave his tongue, Kagome herself asked him not to get involved. Staying out of this mess had been a smart move.

Taking her abrupt stop when they reached the bottom of the steps as his cue, Satoru got them to his suite in a flash.

"You know, I haven't gotten any story yet."

Wet hair was pulled to the side, dampening a towel draped over clothes he didn't recognize.

After the shower the girl had rushed to take as soon as they were back, the young woman seemed to have managed to put herself together. The pizza she'd ordered for early lunch, however, hinted she was still struggling to get back to what Satoru was beginning to term as her usual baseline behavior. After dragging him to a supermarket yesterday, Kagome had insisted on using his untouched kitchen for their last couple of meals despite how easy it'd be to order some decent takeout. Her food had been better than what he'd expected, so he hadn't even tried to call a restaurant, takeout wasn't a hill he was willing to die on with his new housemate. Besides, aside from rolling her eyes she hadn't said anything about the multitude of cake and pastry boxes he got for dessert. Today's junk food was her idea.

"Not much to tell," he said, absentmindedly taking a slice. "Cursed energy is created by negative emotions. Every person generates a certain amount of it, jujutsu sorcerers and curse users have more of it and can use it at will since they can control it, and curses are formed by the accumulation of negative energy non-sorcerers produce."

"…that's it?"

"Yep, pretty much." An oversimplification, yes, but the history involved in their world was long and complicated and not really first on their priority list. "Those're the basics."

"Are you just not going to mention how you people have ties to the government?" Sarcasm bled through her words.

"One week from now you'll be one of us people, ya know," Satoru scoffed, taking a bite of the pizza. "But well…it just happened."

"Satoru…you do know teachers are meant to teach, right?" She asked slowly, as if she was talking to a child.

"There's nothing like hands-on experience." It was what allowed someone to survive. "Especially when talking about sorcerers whose job is to fight off curses."

"For all the…was that how the other teachers taught their classes?" And now frustration was thrown into the mix.

"Who knows," the sorcerer shrugged, taking a can of soda from the small collection on the table. "Never really paid much attention."

Endless lectures during his childhood ensured he knew all there was to know about jujutsu history and theory; the basics of practical sorcery were handled by his clan; anything more advanced, Satoru dealt with it himself. As for regular class subjects…he'd outsmarted his private tutors when he was still a child. Even if he wanted to copy someone else's teaching style, it wouldn't be possible. Besides, what he really wanted to teach his future students wasn't something that could be found in a syllabus…judging by how little Miss Archer abandoned her slice of pizza in favor of rubbing her temples, she was not happy with his answer.

"Do you have any idea how many times I almost died because of hands-on experience?" This time, she was groaning.

"You're still here, though," he pointed out, lazy grin in place. "And I'm still here, so clearly, it works."

"Making sure your students are prepared is an essential part of teaching!" And her control finally slipped a little.

"Let's just agree to disagree for now." Priorities, he reminded himself, as fun as it'd be to keep this chat going, he needed to focus on the time-sensitive stuff. "Anyway, we don't have the time for theory right now."

His words seemed to do the trick, and what promised to be a discussion about his non-existent study plans was quickly forgotten. Instead, the girl rested her head on her free hand and picked the slice back up with the other. To be fair, they probably should have a talk about this. Because while the sorcerer could come up with a working lesson plan on the fly, it'd be hard for someone who'd someone who'd lived as a regular civilian until a few days ago to keep up with him. For next few days, however, her training would to come first. Having to wait until the early afternoon for the house to be ready meant they'd lose most of the day. A cursory demonstration of her powers was the best he could hope for.

"Alright, fine." Kagome gave up with a sigh. "You said it'd be something like the monster from before or a curse user, right?"

"Yup, I'll get us a couple missions. Try and let you get a taste of everything. But first, I need to know what you can do."

Pausing, Kagome tilted her head slightly, likely trying to figure something out before agreeing with a silent nod.

"If we're talking about attacks, I can channel reiki to pretty much anything, but I am an archer first. You already saw what direction purification can do." The girl paused, grabbing a can of iced tea. "Ofudas and sutras have different effects, but it takes some time to prepare those, so if I run out of them during a fight, I'm out of them."

"Different as in…" he prompted.

"Binding, sealing, purification, it varies." They really needed to work on those details she kept avoiding. "But they can also sort of work on their own?"

Confusion laced her words as she tried to come up with a proper way to explain everything, but it was clear whatever training she received in this other reality of hers was more than just a little half-baked. He supposed it made sense. According to her story, regardless of the world she was in, little Miss Archer grew up in a regular family up until three years, so being forced to catch up was apparently a thing in her life, and now, it was up to him to ensure she could survive in the jujutsu world.

"Ugh, this gets so confusing," she groaned, finally giving up. "Can we just say I can do most things old myths and legends talk about? I can skip most chants if I need to. They just help me focus. I guess it's easier to show you."

"What about domain expansions?"

"Sorry, what?"

Right, so apparently, that wasn't a thing where she came from. Finding a special grade was the first thing on their list. The one she fought in the mall was one for sure, but it had only just hatched, so she managed to exorcise it before having to face a sure-hit technique. The way his energy fizzled out as soon as it touched her shield, her technique should be able to imitate the effect of a simple domain. Her reaction speed when creating that barrier of hers during yesterday's meeting was good; as long as her stamina could keep up, it'd probably work quite well. Confirming his hypothesis was still important, of course, but at least it appeared he'd have one less thing to worry about.

"Never mind, we can cover that while we're on the field." It'd be nothing he couldn't handle.

"Teaching, Satoru," Kagome repeated, rolling her eyes as she stood up and collected the mostly clean dishes. "If you're supposed to be making sure I'm all caught up, then explanations would get us a long…!"

Loud and piercing, the sound of ceramic crashing on the ground drowned the soft thud of her knees hitting the floor.

But not enough to swallow her pained groan.

His head whipped around, his senses heightened in search of a threat, only for him to stop when his gaze found her. The young woman was kneeling; blood was starting to pool under her left leg, broken pieces of china scattered around her. But that wasn't what his attention was focused on the way her hands flew to her head, fingers tangled in raven locks, azure eyes shut close as she let out a grunt.

There was no foreign energy to find, no threat to fight.

"What is…" Words refused to get out even as he walked closer to her. "Are you…?"

"No…yes…I'll be fine…just forgot." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Forgot what?" This did not look like something one just forgets about.

"Got caught…on the way back…shit." The girl attempted to stand up, only to slip back to the ground. "Just get my yellow bag."

"Can't you heal yourself?"

"Nothing to heal…" she panted, leaning back on the kitchen counter. "…won't last long…not today."

Questions whirled inside his head even as he rushed to the bedroom. Whether it was because of the pain or because of her experience with demons, the girl didn't seem surprised that he was back with her bag before a second had passed; instead, she stammered instructions to find a bottle of pills. Sleeping drugs, he noticed. She was wincing as he offered him a pained smile after swallowing down the pills. Managing a laidback response, he carried her back to bed for the second time in less than a week.

Migraines…she'd mentioned it during her story before, and he had sent someone to confirm that headaches were listed as the cause for her constant school absences, but the sorcerer hadn't stopped to think what that'd look like. He'd seen how the curse left a hole in her shoulder and the ease she'd brushed it off after healing herself. Hell, it didn't look like she'd even noticed the blood still flowing from her leg. Really, he wasn't sure she knew she was hurt in the first place. From the vague comments she made after her story, it sounded like she was experiencing both realities at the same time. If that was the case, then she might be suffering from a sensory overload, similar to the side effects of keeping his Six Eyes and Limitless activated 24/7, but the reverse curse technique was more than enough to deal with it. If she said there was nothing to heal, did it mean she'd already tried it? Was it not physical, then?

His phone was in his hand before he noticed, his finger hovering over Shoko's contact.

Now that he'd shown her to the elders, the main reason not to call for her was irrelevant. They'd need to study how her energy worked anyway, and it's not like he was going to tell the whole fantastical story to anyone else. As far as sorcerers went, the doctor was as good as it got. Still, hesitation stopped his hand. There was a reason the young woman kept things vague. She was way too vulnerable right now; if this information was leaked, people would definitely wait for this to happen again to target her. With her unconscious, there was no guarantee his former classmate could actually heal her to begin with. Forcing down a groan, Satoru glanced at the young woman lying on his bed. Her breathing had evened out somewhat, but there was still some tension in her body. The cut in her leg didn't look deep, but the wound still needed to be cleaned. Besides, they'd need to study how her energy worked, might as well get a head start on that little task.

Letting himself fall into what he was starting to think of as his side of the bed, Satoru brought his phone to his ear.

"Hey, Shoko~" His voice was light and cheerful, no hint of worry slipping through. "Did you have lunch already?"

"What do you want?" Cold as always.

"So mean, I'm just worried about your health," the sorcerer said, pretending his gaze wasn't locked on the young woman in his bed. "Speaking of health, I do know someone who could use your expert help."

"Just bring them over then."

"Nah, that'd be a bad idea." He couldn't bring her there when she was in a drug-induced sleep, let others see her so vulnerable. "Don't feel like the old farts are big fans of her, don't wanna give them the extra ammo."

"…where are you?" Good, she'd caught on to a degree.

"A suite in Roppongi." He ignored her scoff. "I'll send you the address."

"I swear if I go all the way there…" Her empty threat hung in the air.

"Don't worry," Satoru grinned to himself. This would be so much easier if he was just making some elaborate prank."You'll definitely find this interesting."

"It better be."

Less than a five full days, and he'd already seen her bleed twice. Not that there was anything that could be done; still, Satoru didn't like it. The Higurashi Kagome he was getting to know was full of energy. She hadn't faltered when facing that special grade and held her ground in front of the old Council. Even tense and anxious as she'd been this morning, there was a tired determination in her movements. Iridescent blue glanced at his left. Blood had stained the sheets, but they were moving out anyway. He'd given her his word. Promised himself not to fail a third time, yet there was little he could do now. His mind whirled through the few sentences she managed to get out; they implied the young woman had had an idea of when these things would happen. Planning around this was unlikely to be entirely possible with how often they were likely to be on call. Once this test was over, the elders would try to drown them in missions. Taking over her employment as the head of the Gojo clan meant they'd have fewer chances to separate them, but there'd be no time to rest for a while. Still, they'd need to keep this a secret for as long as possible, and for that to happen, they'd have to try to plan around the worst of these attacks.

He was opening the door before Shoko had the time to knock for a second time.

Were the dark circles under her eyes getting worse?

"Please tell me you didn't kidnap some poor woman."

"Ya know, sometimes I wonder what you think of me," Satoru scoffed, leading her into his apartment. "All I did was offer her a job."

"How bad is it?" She asked as soon as she entered his bedroom, her eyes fixed on the patches of red.

"Pretty light." And now Shoko was glaring at him. "But I hope you bought normal medical supplies in that bag 'cause I'm not sure her power won't react by itself."

"…what the hell did you get into?"

"Oh, you wouldn't believe the half of it," he laughed; he barely believed it himself. "But it's quite interesting."

A/N: I just wanted to say, thank you so much for all your kind comments regarding the whole power dynamics/scaling thing. Honestly, trying to figure out how to mesh those two while trying to stick to canon is a really fun and interesting way to get a headache. I have been thinking about how I'd approach trying to mesh more of the Inuyasha cast with this and do have a bit of an idea for a story, but it'd have to wait until I get close to finishing one of my other stories since this chapters aren't exactly short…regardless, I'll keep doing my best to explain how I'm mixing both power sets, if anything gets confusing do feel free to reach out.

As for Kagome and Satoru's relationship, the instant attraction thing can be fun, but I wanted to try my hand at something a bit different since there's a lot to play with, considering these characters backstories. Glad to know you guys are enjoying it.

I wanted to get a hint at the gap between how this two interact with others in this chapter since that is really one of their biggest differences. Yes, this version of Kagome is far more cautious than her canon self, but she's still more willing to open up to others, even if it takes her a bit more time.

As always, thank you guys so much for reading and any and all review/comment/criticism is greatly appreciated since they genuinely motivate me!