CH. 8 'At least now I won't have to pretend' OR 'Is there something about me that makes you think I wouldn't?'

"Hi, I'm Ami's fiancé Kibutsuji Aizen, and you are?"

Through her rapidly blurring vision Rinami could see the shape of him extending an arm out towards Gojo.

"Sukuna."

Gojo's response was just the single word, dripping with disdain. And while it didn't take Rinami by surprise, her knees still gave out and she found herself held propped up only by Sukuna, as she struggled to hold down the bile that was rapidly rising in her throat. She shut her eyes. She couldn't very well sit on the floor and clasp her hands over her ears like a two-year-old in a tantrum, but if she didn't have to see how this played out, then she didn't want to.

"Huh." Sukuna tilted his head to the side. "Well damn. There really is no fooling you, I guess. Worth a try though." She heard Sukuna's chuckle through his chest and felt a small vibration as she assumed he shifted to his original form. She squeezed her eyes tighter. What were the chances that this would all go away if she kept them closed long enough and just willed it all to end?

"Rin! What's going on!?" Gojo's voice. He sounded worried. And confused.

Another chuckle from Sukuna. "I think she's in shock…"

Suddenly she felt her body being hauled up and shifted, Sukuna's arm across her chest pinning her tightly in front of him.

"Makes her an excellent shield though, and an easy exit strategy. I'm pretty sure I can puncture her jugular before you can land a hit on me. Want to test it out?"

"Seriously, Sukuna. Using a woman as your shield?" Gojo looked more than just irritated.

Sukuna shrugged. "Women, children. Is there something about me that makes you think I wouldn't?"

Gojo seemed to be done feeding into it. He turned his attention from Sukuna back to Rinami, who had finally opened her eyes, but was now staring listlessly at the floor.

"Rin, look at me." He reached up and pulled his blindfold down around his neck.

She didn't want to. At this moment in time, looking at him was very literally the absolute last thing that she wanted to do. But still….she had made her choices freely, even knowing that they very well could lead to this exact situation. Was she really going to wimp out and run from it now?

With red-rimmed eyes, Rinami lifted her head and locked eyes with him.

"Sukuna? You knew?" His crystal blue eyes bore desperately into hers, the gaze still not as intense as the question he was asking.

Rinami swallowed painfully. Trying to respond with words would be no use. With effort she tried to force her head to nod, but it refused to budge. Finally, she resigned herself to just tearing her eyes from Gojo's and looking away. Turned out that was answer enough.

"I see."

Nearby, Mei Mei gasped and Nanami grunted, but Rinami could only hear the emotion in Gojo's voice, and tears immediately began to once again stream down her face. She couldn't recall it but his tone sent a wave of nostalgia over her. It was so very familiar and it invoked a feeling of immense sadness. She'd heard this same pain in his voice before, she just couldn't place it….

"Well, fuck. Y'know it is okay to lie every once in a while Ami." Sukuna's arm dropped ungracefully from around her. "Figured that one was worth a shot too." He grinned broadly and lightly shrugged at Gojo. "A free pass with her, right?" Suddenly he replaced the arm around Rinami's hip, pulling her closely to him and embracing her tightly within his grip.

"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, there's no point in playing around anymore. You can call off your hunt. You know where she is now so don't bother looking any further. Besides… I'll be finding you soon enough." Sukuna laughed, and Rinami bristled at these last words, and looked up at him. She'd already told him she'd have no part in him taking action against the school, but it sounded like he still had major plans and she didn't like the sound of it.

From the background she could hear Mei Mei's droning voice floating forward from under her breath. "Well, at least now I won't have to pretend to feel bad about having screwed Gojo…" Rinami closed her eyes and took a large inhale, maybe she wouldn't complain if Sukuna hit the school but only targeted Mei Mei...

Gojo snapped his head toward Mei Mei and shot her a look of total disgust, as Mei threw her shoulders up at him. "What? I don't." She countered nonchalantly, lifting a hand to inspect her perfectly manicured purple nails.

Turning from her, Gojo stepped forward towards Sukuna, "Yeah right, like you're going anywhere Sukuna. Rin hasn't done anything so there's no order out for her. But you- I've got a list longer than my dick, with your offenses and the orders against you. And I'm pretty sure they don't care if you come in dead or alive, so I'll let you make that call."

Sukuna gave Gojo a bored look. "Don't you get tired of hearing yourself talk? You really think I showed up here on my own and then I'd let you keep me from leaving if I felt like it?" He laughed and as he did a loud explosion reverberated from outside. Aside from Sukuna and Gojo, everyone's eyes widened and turned towards the door.

"You may want to check on that. If you move fast you might even save a few humans before those loose cursed spirits can get them. Or at least before the next one goes o-". He was interrupted by another loud explosion.

"Oh. Never mind" Sukuna grinned. "You've got your hands full, so we'll be on our way. Don't worry though, I promise I'll be seeing you soon."

As Rinami stared up at him in shock, she heard another explosion right above her head, and as debris came tumbling down, she felt Sukuna's arms grip her tightly and before she knew it they were first outside, then in a different area of town, and then at the door to their apartment. Not quite like Gojo's teleportation, but still… so fast and so impressive. As he set her down, Rinami again turned to him, mouth agape.

Sukuna smirked at her. "It's fine. They won't be able to follow."

Rinami closed her mouth and frowned, squinting her eyes in distaste at him. "That's not it. The explosions….Sukuna, what was that? "

He gave a casual shrug. "A simple distraction"

She placed a hand on his chest, then curled it into a fist, clutching tightly to his shirt. "Yeah, I get that. Did you kill people?" She searched his eyes. The fact that he was avoiding a direct answer when he obviously knew what she was getting at already told her more than enough, but still, she wanted to hear it from his mouth.

"Ami." His face was dark and his tone darker. Rinami stood her ground and held his gaze, but inside everything turned to jelly and a wave of cold fear washed briefly over her. "Don't ask questions if you don't really want to hear the answer. And don't forget how we got there in the first place."

Before she could reply, a flash of white shot between her and Sukuna, breaking Rinami's hand from it's grasp on him, and then stopping near Sukuna.

"Uraume! Good work out there." Sukuna's pleased tone disturbed Rinami even more, as she watched him turn to Uraume with a dark smile on his face. The white-haired woman turned eyes filled with contempt on Rinami. Irritated and still reeling from her earlier encounter, Rinami ignored her and swiftly swept past both Sukuna and Uraume to head into the apartment, slamming the door behind her .

From there she went directly to the bathroom where she quickly stripped off her clothes and stepped under the hot shower water. Letting the water run over her head and face she found that it seemed to help stave off the tears that were once again threatening to fall. She put a hand on the shower wall to hold herself up as she hung her head down and the water ran over the back of her head. Gritting her teeth and balling her hands she recounted the run-in at the convenience store. They know now. They all know. She let out a loud, dry, heaving sob and then allowed herself to drop to the floor of the shower, curling up into a fetal ball and closing her eyes as the water continued to rain down over her. She couldn't say for sure how long she lay there, miserable in her own thoughts and unable to move or break free of the overwhelming sadness that had settled over her and now felt like it was smothering her.

All she knew was that at some point she heard the water shut off and a warm towel covered her body right before she was lifted from the floor. Not wanting to, and expending an enormous amount of effort to do so, she slowly opened her eyes to look up into Sukuna's face. Annoyance was clearly stamped across it, however deeper behind his eyes she could see something else, something a bit softer. Rinami exhaled. That was good enough. As he carried her from the bathroom, she gingerly draped an arm over his chest and laid her wet head against his bicep, closing her eyes again and instantly drifting off to sleep.