"Time to tell me who you really are."

Satoru finally released (Y/N)'s throat. She leaped forward, but only a bit, because the furious sorcerer wasn't about to let her go. The only thing left for the woman to do was, to tell the truth.

"You know who I am."

"Sure. You're just a friendly bartender with a crazy hobby to absorb cursed energy from curses. Am I missing something?"

"You don't understand. That's not who I am. We haven't just met this year in Tokyo. My real name is (L/N) (Y/N). The first time we met was over 8 years ago in (country)."

She watched as Satoru's expression changed and recognition hit him. She had no doubt that he had remembered the time they met.

"So you did it. You really got stronger."

"Well, a bit. But I'm sure I'm still no match for you."

Flattering would never hurt. His response was a bigger smile.

"That's true, so don't forget it."

New questions were popping up in his mind, but there was one more urgent question than the others that he needed to ask before leaving the graveyard.

"Are you a curse user?"

"It depends."

(Y/N) knew she was trying his patience, but she couldn't show fear to him. She needed him to be curious about her. That way, she hoped he would keep asking her questions instead of just handing her over to the higher-ups. But seeing his unamused face, she added quickly.

"From what I've learned in school, a curse user is a sorcerer or sorceress who has ill intentions towards others. By that definition, I'm not a curse user."

"But?" He inquired.

"But, somehow, the higher-ups have decided to mark me as a curse user just because I went on a journey to find the person responsible for my parent's death."

Satoru pondered her words. The events that led to the death of her parents were strange, he had to admit that. Was somehow one of the elders involved in it and that's why they wanted to stop (Y/N) from snooping around? He ignored that thought for now because it wasn't the right time to think about it. They needed to leave.

Gripping the woman by her arm, he forced her to move in the opposite direction they had come, but (Y/N) complained.

"Wait, my bags!"

The man just gave her a questioning look.

"Please, let me get my bags. It has been over a year since I last spent that much money on clothes. I can't just leave them at the entrance of the graveyard!"

"You for real now? Are you aware that you being a curse user I could kill you without any implications?"

She lowered her head and pouted.

"I know that, but my clothes..."

Groaning, Sarotu turned the other way. He wasn't even sure why he indulged her, but he had to hide his smile at how happy she was about his decision.

...

"Happy now?" He asked her on their way to his apartment.

"Sure, as happy as I could be while being forced to accompany a man with the intent to kill me." She said sarcastically, but her voice was lacking any trace of it.

"If you would like, I could let you change into some of your new clothes before killing you then." He added, just as calm as she did.

Whoever would be listening to them without understanding a word would say they were just having a normal conversation.

But (Y/N) changed the tone, her voice becoming more velvet as she said: "I could wear that lace lingerie that I bought because of you."

Satoru smiled while letting go of her arm, shifting his hand onto her waist before pulling her closer. He had seen her buy that piece she was talking about, and at the time he was looking forward to taking it off of her. But as much as he had enjoyed the nights they spent together, he knew that wasn't going to happen again.

He stooped down to whisper in her ear: "If you think you can seduce me so I will go easy on you, you are mistaken hon. You have lied to me, tricked me, and used me. I will make sure you talk and explain why you did that. But I'm no monster, you can choose if you want it the easy way or the hard way."

His smooth voice whispering threats into her ear made her shiver. She had no doubt about the truth of his words. Before she would dig her own grave, she preferred to stay silent till they could talk more openly.

They finally made it to his apartment. Satoru practically tossed (Y/N) inside it once the door was opened. She barely managed not to drop to the floor. She fixed her clothes without a word, put down her bags at the entrance, and took off her shoes while she saw the withe-haired man lock the door and put the keys in his pocket.

She was trapped now...

After taking off his shoes, he passed by her and went to get a chair from the dining table. Placing it in front of the couch, he motioned for her to sit at the chair, while he made himself comfortable on the couch.

With crossed legs and arms extended over the backrest, he began to talk. "Now, where should we begin..."

(Y/N) tried to sit comfortably on the chair, but it was impossible. She knew Gojo made her sit there just to make her feel that way, but knowing it didn't help. Patiently she waited for what he would ask first.

Organizing his thoughts, the limitless user decided to start with the easier questions. "Why are you here in Tokyo?"

"I came in search of you."

"Why?"

"You were the one to investigate my parent's death. I wanted to ask you what you can remember from back then."

"For what porpoise?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You must know why. I want to know who is responsible for killing my parents."

Without giving away any emotion he had, he continued to ask questions and evaluate her reactions.

"Why are you so sure it wasn't an accident? One of your parents could have found the cursed doll and taken it home."

Her voice changed. She became angry. "My parents were maybe only third-grade sorcerers, but they weren't fools nor careless. There's no way they would take that cursed object home."

Satoru didn't believe that (Y/N)'s parents death was a mere accident, but he wanted to provoke her. She was a smart woman and in control of her emotions, but just now she had lost her composure. That showed him she was telling the truth. She really wanted to know who was behind that gruesome deed. But that led him to another question.

He switched positions. He leaned forward while uncrossing his legs and positioning his elbows on his thighs: "Assuming there is someone responsible for their deaths, what will you do once you find out who it was?"

His question took her by surprise. She couldn't say that she imagined torturing that person, or even killing him. So she bent the truth. "I haven't decided what I'll do."

Gojo sighed. He had felt her killing intent, but could he blame her? She was still a teen when she found her parent's dead bodies. But that didn't really matter now. He didn't know who was responsible for that anyway. He wasn't even the one to do the investigation. He pondered telling her that he had only been at her home that day because he was following the Matrioska's cursed energy. Eventually, he decided not to tell her for now. She needed to deserve his thrust again before he would tell her that.

"Okay. Let's change the subject then. How did you increase your cursed energy that much? And the control you have over it... I assume it has something to do with your marks?"

"Yes, it does. But before you ask me how I got these marks, I must say that I can't reveal it. I can only say where I found the information to get them."

"I can use force for you to tell me."

"I don't doubt it. But I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't do it. I have made a promise to not reveal it."

Before Satoru could ask her anything more, his phone rang. Taking it out of his pocket he saw that his youngest student was calling.

"There's nothing here..." The teen sounded grumpy.

"Huh?"

"The shed is empty."

"For real? That's hilarious! No going home until it's recovered, okay?"

"I'm gonna punch you."

The man hung up on the teen. He had talked carefree but was actually worried. He had sent Megumi alone to retrieve one of Sukuna's fingers because he had thought it would be a boring task to handle it himself and the shadow user should be alright with it. But seeing how another finger had just shown up and it turned that curse into a special grade, he became worried.

Satoru decided to go help Megumi, but he couldn't just let (Y/N) be alone. He hasn't decided what to do with her yet, that's why he would take her with him.

"So, change of plans. Have you ever been to Sendai City?"

Okay, that's it for today's chapter, but I have some things to say about this story.

I don't know if you have noticed it, but I changed the description of this story. It's no big deal, the only thing I wanted to point out was that I have decided to split this story at least into two parts.

This first part won't be going further than the first season in the anime. So if you're not reading the manga, you won't get spoiled, presuming you have finished the first season. It will have some closure, but it will be obvious that the story doesn't end there.

Then the second part will depend on the development of the manga. For anime's only, there will be spoilers to the manga because I like to write canon.

That said, the manga isn't evolving much after the Shibuya Incident Arc, so I will probably take a break when the first part is finished. But till then it will probably take some time.

Then I need to say that my updates will probably continue to be erratic because I have some things to take care of and writing is only a hobby, not a priority... But I will continue writing. If I should decide otherwise, I will let you know (but I highly doubt it will come to that. Writing is one of a few things that is keeping me sane right now…)

Anyway, hope you have a nice day or night (depending on the time you read this)