That whole talk with Geto was certainly a big step forward in her relationship with him. But just telling someone that they needed help and advising them on who to talk to wasn't enough.
The ride back was incredible and absolutely icy, which didn't bother her at all, but had Geto huddling miserably against her as they flew. She really was pretty cold proof.
The dragon landed smoothly and Geto immediately dragged her off, the curse vanishing behind them, carrying her up the stairs and indoors quickly. She didn't catch sight of the cursed corpse initially, but eventually it trudged in, each soggy step making a distinctly wet noise on the floor.
Yaga was waiting, along with Riko and Kuroi. It was the cafeteria that they were in right now, and Yaga immediately threw a pile of clothes to her, which she fumbled to try and catch it without impaling it with the knife in her hand, before shifting to hold it in one arm, kunai in the free hand.
Yaga, being a responsible adult, spotted it immediately.
"Why do you have a kunai?" He asked sharply, and she held it out to him to let him take it from her like he clearly wanted to. He put it aside immediately.
"I found a kunai! It was in the river. Oh-" She started pulling the rocks and coins that she had in her pockets out, holding one handful out to Yaga, who cupped his hands together obligingly. When she finished she grinned up at them.
"I'll get you a place to display these." He told her. Really? Her own display place? How fancy! 98% of all of her collected rocks went into jars, which then slowly got pushed into the back of her closet. The rest went into various little display places, on her dresser, on a shelf, and a select few were worth keeping in her pockets or purse.
"What happened? Did you get lost?" He finally got to the point, and Geto took over from here, bless him. She didn't really feel like repeating herself right now.
"She was familiar with the barrier from when she went looking for Riko-san. She got lost and picked a direction in an attempt to reach the edge of the barrier in order to orient herself back towards the school." Geto explained. She still wasn't sure why it hadn't worked.
Yaga sighed heavily after Geto finished.
"The cursed corpse that was protecting you has its own temporary barrier that I set up. It was intended for you to take with you while you went to school, to scare cursed spirits away." He explained to her simply.
"Oh." Was all she could say. So she had been right, she had just never actually reached the barrier. And it didn't really do anything against Geto's curses, maybe because he had programmed them in as allowable?
"At least you were safe." Yaga acquiesced finally,"and I can change some things to make sure it is capable of leading you back to school when you need it to." She nodded, slightly shamefaced. It had been kinda stupid of her to not even consider how to find her way back.
"Go get changed now, I don't want you getting sick. We waited for you to start dinner, so hurry back!" He waved her off and she went to go find her room.
She changed quickly, toweling herself dry with one of the towels hanging in the bathroom, then ran back towards the cafeteria while patting her hair dry, leaving the towel wrapped around her shoulders.
Had Yaga planned for more 'family' style dinners now? Riko, Kuroi, and Geto were sitting at a table, in various levels of comfort. Geto in particular was tense, like he was expecting her to shout out his secrets to the world. Doctor patient confidentiality, dude. She wasn't going to spill the beans, because then he would never trust her again.
Yaga had a pair of large oven mitts on his hands, holding a pot of rice, and a pan of stir fried vegetables and shrimp was already on the table. It was amusingly domestic.
She went over, sitting right next to Geto, who had somehow already changed, getting back faster than she did. He didn't get more tense at her presence, so she made her muscles and face relax purposefully, making herself appear completely at ease.
Nothing to worry about right now Geto, you can calm down. She wasn't going to push to get him to talk to Yaga immediately, too much at once and he'd get overwhelmed and either shut down or panic. No one wanted the special grade sorcerer with homicidal ideation to feel trapped and panic.
He relaxed incrementally as they ate peacefully and she didn't bring up their conversation with Yaga. Instead, she talked about swimming in the river, and the various animals she saw while she was wandering around lost and how super cool it was to go flying on Geto's dragon.
When dinner was over, Yaga invited her to watch My Neighbor Totoro with him, but she politely refused, saying she was really tired. Truthfully, she kinda wanted to watch it with everybody else. Yu-nii, Nanami, Gojo, it didn't feel right to have a movie night without them, and Geto looked like he'd pass out if he had to take much more socialization today. He never struck her as an introvert, but he was definitely charismatic enough to hide it if he wanted. He was the leader of a cult for a reason.
She just about crawled over to her bed after a wonderfully warm shower, and for once she fell right asleep.
She slept in for once that day, waking up well past sunrise. By the time she brushed her teeth and tamed her wild hair, she wasn't surprised to see that no one was there for a late breakfast.
What was a surprise was that nobody seemed to be around.
"Yaga-san?" She called from outside, in front of his office building. She had already searched inside the building, in several classrooms, the training grounds, and even walked up to the row of arches that made up the front entrance to peer down it.
Now she was just calling out the occasional name from in front of his building. Her cursed corpse companion wasn't even there, not that they'd be the best company.
She drew idly in the dirt with a random stick she had found, drawing a chibi Gojo, then a chibi Geto along with it, holding hands. Did she watch a tutorial on how to draw them a few weeks before she got Isekai-ed? Perhaps.
The sound of footsteps drew her attention and she looked up, using her foot to erase the drawings as she stood, but her automatic call died in her throat as she saw that the people walking up were not the ones she expected.
They were jujutsu sorcerers, clearly, but they didn't seem to be from Jujutsu High. None of them wore the uniform for one thing. One was a blonde man with plain features, with shaggy hair and a frown on his face. Another had dark hair, pretty, delicate features and thin eyebrows and looked kind of bored. The final man was quite old, very wrinkly and had gray hair. He was a little scary in the way that old people looked, like he was judging you and finding you very lacking.
They all looked surprised to see her sitting there.
"Hello?" she called out, a bit more wary than she had intended. She wanted it to come out more innocently, just to throw them off a little bit. Too late now. The old man stepped up front, his surprise fading instantly into a more caring, grandfatherly facade.
"Who are you, child?" He called out friendly, and she took a small step backwards because he was really, really freaking her out.
"My name's Midori," She answered slowly, but she forced her tone to be friendly and casual, "Do you know where everyone went?"
"Oh dear, did they leave you all alone here?" The old man responded, still eerily jovial, and he even laughed a little after finishing his sentence.
"Nakamura-kun, why don't you take her with you, we'll finish things up here." He said to the blond man, who nodded quickly.
Oh hell no. No one was taking her anywhere.
She took several steps backwards, stumbling slightly as she went up a few steps, and the men paused.
"Who are you?" She asked, much less friendly. Ah this was not going very well.
"Ah, I guess we forgot to introduce ourselves." The old man said, still jovial as ever, his hand going to rub the back of his head like he was embarrassed.
"That is Nakamura-kun, and the man next to me is Zenin-san. My name is Sato-san. We are here on official business, no need to be frightened, Midori-chan." He said, his tone reassuring, but she really, really didn't trust that. And a Zenin really didn't sound very good right now. She knew how they treated little girls.
So she turned and bolted up the steps, cursed energy surging upwards from where it rested in her stomach, and she slammed the door shut just in time for Nakamura to smash into it and she clicked the lock shut. The nearest large object, a vase of some sort, went in front of the door as someone's foot hit the door in a terrifyingly forceful kick and she started running up the stairs, opening the seventh door on the left, finding an office with a large window.
The office window was one floor up, but she pried the window open easily enough and the sloped roof made for a much lower fall.
She took off running, not quite sure where to go except away. She took a right turn, then a left, then another right, eventually ending up in some sort of dorm hall and picked the third door on the right, then the fourth when that one was locked.
She locked that door, then ran to the bathroom and locked that one too before climbing into the shower area and pulling the curtain shut.
For a while, she waited there, time ticking passed slowly. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen. Slowly, her heart rate calmed, and she reigned in her cursed energy a little, letting a little heat flow back into her frozen skin.
The time crawled by, but fifteen minutes turned into an hour, then that into two. She hadn't woken up expecting to hide in a bathroom for hours, but here she was. She wished she still had her kunai.
Was she just gonna have to sit here until someone either found her or someone from Jujutsu High actually came back? She hadn't seen Mei-mei yet, or Utahime, they were in school now too right? Maybe not Mei-Mei though. Ugh, she had watched that episode with her dad, and they both were dead silent for nearly ten minutes afterwards, only commenting about it after they finished the episode. If they ever tried to leave her alone with her, she was calling Geto and telling him about what she knew of that episode.
Better teenage Mei-mei than that Zenin guy though.
Distantly, she could hear someone shouting and she unlocked the bathroom door to peek her head through the closed curtains. There was no one in sight, so she quietly cracked the window open, bending down to press her ear close to the opening.
Someone was shouting something, that was clear enough, but she couldn't quite make out the words so she settled down to sit next to the window.
The voice got further away for a while before getting closer again, and eventually she was able to make out her own name. She didn't recognize the voice though, so she stayed put and eventually they stopped shouting altogether.
It was nearly five hours into her stakeout in this random room when she finally heard a voice that she did recognize calling her name. It had that familiar irreverent tone to it, and she just about fell over herself throwing the window open and hurling herself right out. She really was jumping out of a lot of windows recently.
"Gojo-san!" She shouted, raising her hands to her mouth to make voice carry better, and he was right there in what felt like seconds, scooping her up into his arms and she clung to him right back, utterly relieved that finally at least someone else was there with her.
"Midori-chan, what a good hider you are!" Gojo cooed over her, and she got noticeably tenser as she saw the people he was carrying her towards. That Nakamura guy was still there, slightly sunburnt and very irritated, along with a cluster of other unfamiliar sorcerers.
"Who are those people, Gojo-san? Where did everyone go?" She asked, ignoring the other sorcerers for now. They could glare at her all they wanted, Gojo wouldn't let them hurt her.
"Ah, Midori-chan, Yaga-Sensei and everyone else were called in for a trial by the higher ups, for technically failing our mission." Gojo explained, waving his hand around like it was completely irrelevant information.
"I got sent to look for you because all these sorcerers over here couldn't find a four year old kid.. So I have to bring you back, and you are going to explain what you remember from when you first met Riko-chan, and everything else about her from before Toji, alright?" Gojo said, and his eyes met hers steadily, far more serious than his voice was.
They were in trouble for not killing Riko, right? Because Geto told her she wouldn't have to if she didn't want to, and that they would protect her, and now they were going to trial, and that meant that she would have to go to the trial as a witness.
"I don't want everyone to be staring at me." She whispered to Gojo, and she couldn't keep the alarm out of her voice, because what the hell was she supposed to say if they started asking her exactly how she had gotten there? What if they had a truth thing, and asked her if she knew about Riko beforehand or something? How many people were going to be there? Was she going to have to go up to a witness stand or something?
Oblivious to her internal downward spiral of anxiety, Gojo patted her on the head with one free hand, and she slowly reached up to mess his hair up too in return, making him laugh softly. Someone opened a car door for Gojo and he placed her in the middle seat and buckled her in securely before climbing in himself, forgoing his seat buckle entirely as the driver and another sorcerer climbed in the front two doors. Someone might have tried to get in on the left side too, but the only sign of it she saw was Gojo's cold glare at someone behind her, and no one tried again.
"The old dudes on the council are going to ask a lot of questions, but you don't have to answer anything you don't want to and it's alright to say you don't know. I doubt that they will let me up there with you, but I'll be watching too, OK? Everyone else is going to be watching too So don't worry too much, alright?" His tone was surprisingly soft and reassuring, but that utter confidence was unmistakable.
She'd be alright, because he was going to make sure of it.
The thought was far more reassuring than she expected, and she let the tension drain out of her muscles, slumping bonelessly against his side and he put his arm protectively around her as the sorcerer in the front seat glanced back, only to go slightly pale and whip back around to face the front. He didn't glance into the backseat for the rest of the trip. Gojo must have had quite the glare.
The trip was probably the fastest half an hour that she had ever had the displeasure of living through, as she wound herself up with anxiety as fast as Gojo could calm her down, and he eventually resorted to annoying her just to give her something else to focus on. Threats of biting off his annoying fingers, which wouldn't stop poking her cheeks, only got an annoying little coo from him.
He unbuckled her and carried her out of the car, ignoring the people who had come to lead her to wherever she was supposed to go beforehand, instead walking right up to the main entrance of a very official looking building and waltzing right in despite the protests of the sorcerers guarding the entrance.
The building was packed, and she felt her body temperature drop like a stone as all eyes turned right towards the two of them. Gojo felt it too, because he waved and then held her out like he was showing off a cute cat.
"Here's the four year old little girl that five adult sorcerers were somehow unable to find!" He announced loudly, waving her around as he did so, and the rudeness was palpable throughout the audience and she heard multiple people gasp and mutter to themselves about it. Gojo, why must you make it worse? She couldn't deny that it was a little funny though. Did they not just search the entire school? Go room to room, check all the doors and closets, and then search section by section.
Did they just not know how to properly search for people who were hiding from them?
He carried her like that the whole way down the aisle, eventually plopping her down at a raised podium after shoeing someone else off of it rudely. Were they a witness too? An expert?
Still, he waved goodbye to her with a quick "byebye" and hopped the barrier, letting himself slump forward over it so he was leaning halfway out as people backed rapidly away to give him space. It was like a clump of sheep backing up from an unfamiliar dog, not quite sure how well trained it was. Several people were making their way over to Gojo too, judging by the ripples of people moving around.
She straightened up a little from her slightly bent pose where he had set her and faced towards the elders, pausing when she realized that the podium completely blocked her view of them. Someone else realized it too, and someone dragged out a folding chair, quickly running up with it and unfolding it for her to stand on. She climbed up unsteadily and the chair wobbled dangerously for a moment, and the attendant reached out to steady her as she wobbled too. He flinched backwards like he had been burned the moment he touched her. Not sure what that was about, but at least she could see now.
The elders were older than she expected, varying stages betweened wizened and 'looks like they could have been mistaken for being dead if they stayed still too long' old. These dudes were running Japanese Jujutsu society? What were the qualifications, made it to 90? Were the elders just an array of the top 20 oldest sorcerers currently alive?
Oblivious to her concerns, one man coughed slightly before… using a gavel to rap loudly on a podium. What was this, a tv show? If she thought about it, it kind of was, but still… This was Japan for goodness sake. Who used gavels?
"Midori…" He trailed off, obviously waiting for a last name of some sort, but she just stared at him. Had they asked any questions about her at all?
"Midori-chan, please state your last name." An attendant called out to her as she stayed quiet.
"We don't know yet." She stated primly, keeping her tone as even as possible. She could act dignified. Stop giggling, Gojo, she could hear you.
"You don't know your own last name?" A different elder asked, disbelief coloring his tone and she could tell that multiple people were also doubtful.
"We believe that I have amnesia. According to Gojo-san and Geto-san's investigations, the orphanage I was living in previously collapsed, and they believe that that could be the cause."
There were several murmurs that followed her explanation, more than a few doubtful voices, but the elder who seemed to be the leader waved them off.
"How did you meet Riko Amanai?" He asked.
"Geto-san's curse brought me back to him after wandering around for a while. I saw her there." That wasn't nearly enough information, but she wasn't going to be giving them a smidge more than necessary. Maybe she would be petty instead.
"And why had you interacted with Geto's curse?" His voice was still steady and patient.
"He told it to carry me to safety."
"Why did you need carrying?"
"I had glass in my feet."
"Why did you have glass in your feet?" His tone was getting more impatient every sentence, and it was delightful.
"I jumped from a window."
"Why?"
"To get out of the way of Geto's curse"
"Was it attacking you?"
"No, it was attacking the other curse user guy."
"Why were you present at that time?" He was clearly asking for the whole story, with all connecting information, but she just wasn't biting.
"I walked up the stairs."
"Why were you in the school?" He asked, irritated. She shrugged.
"The flyhead was creepy."
"Why were you on the school grounds?"
"I just kinda woke up there I guess. It's the earliest memory I have." That was her first time speaking more than one sentence in a while. Congrats on asking a better question for once.
"So you have no memories of why you were on school grounds at the exact time that Riko Amanai was also under attack by curse users?" He said, and she nodded slowly.
"After meeting Amanai for the first time, what did you do?"
"I got picked up and carried around by several people." Oop, here she was, back to single sentence answers.
"Did you recognize Amanai?" Oof, here this question was.
"I knew her before then, apparently. She used to visit the orphanage I lived at for charity work." There, she wasn't lying at all. Also, yeah old dude, the girl you wanted to sacrifice did charity work in her free time. Jerks.
"So she knew you beforehand?"
"Yeah, that's how we knew my first name."
"Did either of the sorcerers or Amanai give any indication that they were unwilling to go through with their missions?" He asked, getting more to the point finally.
"No one told me what their missions were." She pointed out, because really, no one had explained it to her. Little bit of a messed up thing to explain to a young child. Sure, she already knew it, but she didn't really have a reason to and she did not want to lie on the stands.
"Riko Amanai's mission was to go to Tengen-sama and allow herself to be merged with him, while Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru's missions were to protect her until she arrived and ensure that she merged with Tengen-sama." He explained, completely unphased by openly admitting to expecting Gojo and Geto to force Amanai to merge with Tengen if she didn't want to.
"They didn't talk about that at all around me." She stated plainly, like she didn't just waste all of their time getting that explanation from him.
"They did not discuss anything about Tengen-sama?"
"Nope."
"They displayed no reluctance to obey orders?"
"They didn't clean the classroom very well after their food fight."
"Was this really worth our time, she clearly doesn't know anything!" Some angry elder finally asked, calling out towards the head old man, and there were a few murmurs of agreement from the people in the crowd. The old man pressed on.
"And where were you when Amanai refused to merge with Tengen-sama and Geto allowed it?"
She thought for a moment, just to waste a little more time. Probably…
"Either trying not to let that man kill me, or on my way to Ieiri-san."
"By that man, do you mean Toji Zenin?" He asked and she shrugged.
"I didn't catch his name, but probably."
"And why were you there in the first place?"
"To find Riko-san."
"Why?"
"I wanted to see her." Technically the truth, she very much wanted to see her again.
"And when Gojo-san asked you to run away, why didn't you?"
"There were a bunch of flyheads surrounding Gojo-san. I didn't want to let him fight them alone."
"You believed that you could make a difference."
"No one should have to fight alone." So don't send rare jujutsu sorcerers on solo missions, and maybe they wouldn't be quite so rare, would they?
"And this is the first time you used your Ice Technique?"
"No. Haibara-san and Nanami-san both taught me how to use it the day before. My cursed energy at least."
"But you used your technique for the first time while fighting Zenin?"
"No. My cursed technique seems to be connected to my cursed energy. I get cold whenever I use it." Oh no, now he seemed intrigued.
"Can you describe your actions against the flyheads?"
"I used frost breath or something on them, and it knocked them out of the sky. Then I hid down in the crater that Gojo-san made until the man and him were fighting and tried to get away."
"And then?" He prodded when she stopped there. Was he going to make her go through the whole thing?
"He grabbed me by the hair and held a knife to my throat, so I used my cursed energy to make his hand really cold to try and get him to drop me."
He gestured for her to continue and she sighed. Nothing like reliving a traumatic event in front of a crowd.
"Gojo-san pushed him away when he dropped me and then started protecting me from that man while I iced the ground over so that he would slip next time he tried to charge at me. I asked Zenin-san if he could be convinced to stop fighting us if we bribed him and he refused."
He tried to interrupt her but she talked over him.
"Then he tried to stab me again but he slipped a bit and Gojo-san jumped on him and they fought. Zenin-san threw a knife and got me in my eye and Gojo-san put a hole in Zenin-san's chest and then carried me to Ieiri-san and then Ieiri-san healed me and I woke up several days later." Her whole spiel was completely toneless, and she knew her face had gone completely blank. She wasn't crying, that was good.
"Satisfied yet?" Gojo asked from right next to her, having hopped the barrier and walked over at some point. A few of the elders looked a bit empathetic, but the head bastard still wasn't done.
"And did you see Amanai at any point?
"I don't know for sure. I don't remember much after Gojo carried me."
"But you may have? What exactly did you see?"
"Someone held my hand down while Ieiri-san started healing me. It could have been her."
"Gojo-san, Amanai was present?" The elder addressed Gojo for the first time, who immediately shook his head.
"I'm not the witness right now." He said cheerfully.
"Yet there you are on the witness stand."
"Just giving Midori-chan a little support! Wouldn't want her to fall off the chair that she needed to look you higher-ups in the face." Gojo said, just as cheerfully, and he pulled her off the chair and into his arms, perched right on his hip, and kicked the chair away carelessly. Was he calling them high and mighty? Or just reminding them that she was only four? Probably both.
"Those on the witness stand will answer our questions to the best of their ability." He said sternly, and it might have sounded better if he wasn't talking to someone who could kill everyone present, excluding perhaps Geto, and not get a dying breath nor a single drop of blood on him.
"Yes, Riko-chan was there." Gojo answered finally, an unfriendly smile on his face, clearly deciding not to fight too much while carrying her.
"Who else?"
"Suguru, Haibara, and Nanami. Shoko, obviously." Gojo answered, literally checking his nails idly.
"Neither Haibara, Nanami, nor Ieiri tried to get Amanai to Tengen-sama? Despite knowing how vitally important it was for the safety of all of the Sorcerers in the world?"
"We were a little busy saving a dying four year old at the time." And the elder waved his hand dismissively.
"Only Ieiri was needed to heal her, Haibara and Nanami were obligated to take Amanai to Tengen-sama, and arrest Geto if possible. You as well, were also obligated to do so." The elder informed him, and she didn't miss the way Gojo's muscles tensed for a moment before relaxing, and really this elder ought to be picking his words a bit more carefully.
Telling Gojo Satoru that he should have arrested Geto Suguru ? Really? He wasn't even willing to kill him, barely even willing to finish him off when he was already dying. He didn't even burn his body for goodness sake, for all the good that sentimentality did him. Gojo wasn't going to arrest him for refusing to make Riko sacrifice herself when she decided she didn't want to.
Haibara and Nanami couldn't reasonably be expected to fight and beat Geto either, not at their power levels. Were they even second years yet?
"Ah, did you really expect our underclassmen to arrest the both of us?" Gojo asked, and the elder paused, clearly catching his use of us. As in, Gojo absolutely sided with Geto, and Riko for that matter.
It was definitely a statement, and not one that pleased the elders at all. Gojo had just looked them in the eyes and said that his allegiance didn't lie with them. Ooh, that was a declaration of war if she had ever heard one.
This situation just got a lot more worrisome to the elders. Was Riko, and Tengen, worth severely alienating, if not outright losing two promising special grade sorcerers, let alone one of them being Gojo Satoru, the strongest?
"Perhaps it was not the proper situation for such actions." The elder admitted after a long pause, and that was a win for Gojo, and hopefully the first step in getting them to leave Riko alone. Things were alright the last time right? Yaga or someone had reassured the boys that Tengen could last a while longer without a merger, and they could wait for the next one to be born. The barrier still seemed fine in Yuji's time, so it'd be fine this time around too. Hopefully.
Really, why could they not use an older star plasma vessel, one who had lived their life? Was Riko really the only one? Let someone get to eighty or something, then sacrifice them with their permission, after they had lived their life. Not a sixteen year old girl, so close to tasting the freedom of adulthood for the first time, still in highschool. She might never get the chance to fall in love, to get a job and use her own money, or to live any sort of life outside of her highschool years. Twelve years of schooling, only to die before she could do anything interesting with her life?
It was cruelty, plain and simple. Or did Tengen only deign to merge with teenage girls? Was youth required or something? You'd think a seventy year old woman would be young enough for an immortal being.
"Why does Riko-san need to do something she doesn't want to?" She finally asked, interrupting the tense standoff between Gojo and the elders. He sighed.
"Tengen-sama needs to merge with the Star Plasma Vessel in order to continue protecting all Sorcerers." He explained coolly.
"Why does it have to be right now?" She asked curiously.
"It is of the utmost importance for it to happen as soon as possible, before Tengen-sama evolves."
"Why can't you wait until Riko is as old as you guys or something. She's still in highschool, isn't she?" And the old man laughed, not a kind one, but sort of patronizing.
"Is Riko-san the only Star plasma Vessel?"
"Well, no, but she was the one planned-" Good to know, but she wasn't done yet.
"So why does it have to be Riko-san, who doesn't want to?"
"None of the others want to either, so-" He was getting flustered, but she pressed on.
"So you pick a teenager as the one to force into merge with Tengen-sama instead? Why not someone who actually has a drivers license? Don't adults hate adulthood?" and she snapped her fingers, like she figured something out.
"Ah, I get it! You picked the person who you thought wouldn't be old enough to know better!" Gojo's shoulders were shaking slightly, and the look of utter pride on his face was completely delightful. The looks of shock and rage on the elder's faces were less so, but she knew who she would be siding with on this and every fight.
It isn't the greater good if you had to sacrifice unwilling people to do it, it was just a different type of evil.
"The witness is dismissed." The old man snapped, and Gojo pivoted on his heel, marching right on out the door before dropping to his knees and laughing raucously the moment the door shut.
"Midori-chan, you are a lot smarter than I thought!" He gasped out, and another fit of laughter had him on his hands and knees. Gojo Satoru, brought to his knees by the words of an isekai-ed four year old.
"I think I was very smart before this." She told him seriously, and he giggled again, struggling to control himself even as the door opened and someone else slipped out.
Yaga was standing there, and as he watched Gojo struggle to control himself his arms slowly crossed and his foot started tapping. Oops. Hopefully he wasn't too mad at her being so rude to the elders.
"Must you declare war in such a public way, Satoru?" He asked finally as Gojo's laughing fit finally subsided and he wiped tears off his face.
"What about what Midori-chan said?" He protested gesturing to her, and she put her hands up defensively. Don't throw her under the bus trying to save yourself Gojo!
"Midori-chan has been conscious on this earth for all of one week, and she's four years old. It's not her fault I haven't gotten around to teaching her how to deal with the higher ups respectfully yet, and I will be instructing her." Oh no. Politeness in the presence of assholes lessons were not her idea of a fun time.
"You, on the other hand, are old enough to know better. We had a plan for this, and it did not include a civil war. If he hadn't backed off, who knows what would have happened? Were you prepared to kill that many more people in front of her just to get her out of there if things came to a head?" He asked harshly, and it was his last sentence that made Gojo pause.
"I guess not." He finally admitted, a little ashamed for not considering it. She patted his shoulder reassuringly. Geto probably would have done it for him.
Probably would be awful for his mental state though, so best for him not to have to.
Yaga left eventually after an attendant called for both of them to please re-enter the trial area, but Gojo stayed seated on the floor and waved the attendant off dismissively.
"You should give Geto-san a hug next time you see him. A long one." She told Gojo, looking him directly in his eyes. He opened his mouth, more likely a question than a protest, and she shushed him quickly.
"I'm smarter than you thought, right? So trust me, he really needs a nice long hug, alright?" She said fiercely, and she didn't look away until he gave her a bewildered nod. Good. At least something good could come of this ridiculous trial over whether they could 'rightfully' force a teenage girl to die, and make more teenagers force her into it.
Urg, even here a woman's bodily autonomy was in question. You couldn't force an already dead person to become an organ donor yet they thought they had the right to force her to die? She'd bet they would be a lot more open to this if Riko were a boy instead.
Oh she was getting enraged just thinking about it. She growled a little in irritation which made Gojo give her a slightly wary look. He probably was worried about her biting him now. It wasn't him that she wanted to bite.
Eventually, they had to get up off the floor though, so Gojo got to his feet and dragged her with him, walking right out the doors. No one tried to stop them, which was probably wise and he ended up wandering over to a McDonalds. It was old McDonalds though with a play area, and it only took a quick pleading look for Gojo to drop her off outside it and go up to order them some food.
She explored the play area slowly. It was between lunch and dinner time right now so there weren't any other kids yet. Lucky her, as she wasn't quite sure how to interact with other children yet.
School would be trial by fire. At least she was mature enough not to be super bothered if she got bullied, and she had a lot of very scary friends.
She was about halfway up by the time Gojo wandered back in, a Happy meal and another bag of food for himself in hand.
"I got you chicken nuggets!" He called out, holding the Happy Meal up temptingly, and she continued her path to the top until she got the slide and slid alarmingly fast down, coming out the other end ruffled, but surprisingly exhilarated.
She made her way over while brushing herself off and sat down, opening her Happy Meal quickly. He had even got her sweet and sour sauce, thereby proving his superiority as a living being. She could probably drink the stuff.
Why was McDonalds so delicious as a kid? It wasn't fair to give her a taste of greatness knowing that it would be gone later in life when she had the money to buy her own food. Was she just starving or was Japanese McDonalds just that good?
Still, it was hard to sulk over future woes when you were eating a Happy Meal, so she ate mostly happily, handing over her toy to Gojo's curiosity. It was some pink little statue, and came with some stickers. Nothing particularly interesting, but Gojo seemed fascinated by the tiny thing. Could probably see every detail about the shoddy thing.
"Want to watch this movie?" He asked, gesturing with the little toy.
"That's a movie?" She asked, surprised. She probably shouldn't be, it wasn't like she was the leading expert on Japanese children's media.
"Yeah. Its advertisement for the second one. The movie is titled Friends of the Snow-Laden Sky or something, from the Pretty Cure series. It's a magical girl anime or something, very cutesy."
"Maybe we could watch the anime first? I wouldn't want to not know what's going on." She decided. He sighed a little and shook his head.
"It's really not the context type of show Midori-chan." Oohh, he was calling it shallow. That did it, she was going to watch every single episode with him. It would be their show, the one that they watch together. She could probably guilt him into watching it with her.
Unaware of her devious plots, he continued eating. Maybe she could get him to cosplay!
"It looks really cool!" She said, laying it on thick for him, turning the toy in her hands and playing around with it a little, making it walk across the table. She made it bump into the edge of the happy meal box and mimed it tripping, a quiet oh no leaving her mouth automatically as she had it tumble dramatically to the ground.
Gojo was staring down at her, expressionless. He shook himself out of it as she paused for a bit too long, taking an alarmingly large bite out of his cheeseburger.
Eventually, more children and parents wandered in, though Gojo's… Gojo-ness and her wild eyed gaze at one kid's aborted approach kept them from walking up to them. She finished her fries quickly as more kids started arriving, a few bold mothers approaching and making idle chit chat with Gojo, which quickly ruined his aura that was keeping the kids away from her.
They left quickly as she urged him out of the building before she could get ambushed and she kept the toy clenched tightly in her fist as they wandered around Tokyo.
Her head turned to follow the music playing at some jaunty arcade and he stopped walking.
"Want to go in?" He asked her, his tone unusually gentle. Was this his never taking youth from the young thing coming into play? Was this him feeling bad about how her life has been so far or just him feeling indulgent? Maybe Yaga's week comment had dug deep.
"We don't have to." She decided, already taking a few steps past the entrance, and was promptly dragged inside.
It was bright and colorful. With an alarming amount of flashing lights. He pushed his glasses up higher, covering his eyes more. Probably too bright in here for him. They should leave, but the moment she took a step towards the door he pulled her right back, pointing out to a Pretty Cure themed claw machine, which was all it really took to pull her attention away. He got a playcard from the cashregister and handed it to her as she paid and she trotted over.
She was too short to even see over the glass so she stood on her toes, craning her head to see, then hopped in order to get a better view.
Gojo made it over to her side, lifting her up to get a better view.
"I want that one!" She exclaimed, pointing to a pink plushie that matched her McDonalds toy, placed nicely on top of the pile of merchandise.
He hummed before swiping the card, carefully guiding the claw overtop of the plush, leaning this way and that to make sure it was perfectly centered over the plush, then pushed the plunger. They both held their breath as it dropped, catching the main body of the plush, lifting it into the air before reaching the top, jiggling for a moment, then making the agonizingly slow trip to the hole.
It was slipping downwards slowly, then dropped entirely and she gasped, but it bounced right into the hole and she let out a cheer, throwing her arms around Gojo's legs, because he was like 70% leg and she couldn't reach his waist, and he bent down to lift her up and hug her properly.
"Thank you Gojo-san." She said softly into his shoulder. This was so much better than sitting there sulking over a trial.
"You can call me Satoru if you want." He said in a tone that was probably meant to be casual, and she looked up at him in surprise. His expression matched his tone, but it looked too practiced, too even..
"Satoru-san?" She said experimentally, testing out the word. He grinned in response and she patted him gently on the head as had become their thing, noticing the way he leaned a little into it. Poor kid really was deprived of physical affection. Almost like he had a magic shielding technique that he had to use since childhood because assassins were not afraid to try and kill little kids if the bounty was high enough. She highly doubted that he was affectionately treated by his family either.
The whole Jujutsu Kaizen universe needed therapy. She was taking care of Jujutsu High, so everyone else could handle the rest.
He set her down finally, and she grabbed the plush from the machine. It was actually much larger than she expected, easily past her knees in height.
"Any more good ones to get, Satoru-san?" She asked, scanning the claw machines.
"What do you like?" He asked, using his ridiculous height to his advantage.
"Pokemon? Or stuffed animals." And Gojo hoisted her up to chest height with an arm around her waist, like he was holding a sheep, pointing to various machines. One had pokemon cards tins, so of course she pointed directly at that one. What set was even out right now?
He snagged three tins throughout ten attempts, and by then the cashier started giving them dirty looks. Might be thinking that Gojo was cheating somehow. Was using the special eyes you were born with to accurately measure the right location to put the crane considered cheating? They moved on though, before he could try and kick them out.
Another had Naruto figures, and Gojo got ten tries into attempting to win a badly positioned Kakashi figure before she pointed out the sign that said that they allowed reduced exchanges, trading two prizes from one machine in order to get the prize of their choice in the same machine. He snagged a Naruto and a Shikamaru, then a second Naruto figure after she took a shine to the Shikamaru one. It looked like Geto! It was getting hard to carry everything with her plush cradled possessively in one arm.
They moved up to the second floor, and Gojo was on a roll, swapping between three cranes and expertly maneuvering them into place before swapping to a different one before the crane even made contact. They had so much candy and random snacks that the employee who was stationed took the liberty of grabbing them a plastic prize bag.
A second bigger prize bag was handed to Gojo after they reached the third floor, by a bemused employee, to keep the prizes that she was struggling to hold onto.
The third floor was more full of people, with individual and much more valuable prizes taking the center stage. Not sure how someone was gonna lift a boxed figure that big, but she waved Gojo on before he could waste all his money trying to get another larger Kakashi figure.
She was nearly out of there when something caught her eye. They had a Nintendo DS in the claw machine?
"Do you like video games, Midori-chan?" Gojo asked teasingly.
"Maybe? It looks cool." Yes, yes, she very much did. Nintendo DS, her beloved handheld gaming device. The Switch could never take its place in her heart. She couldn't fit a Nintendo Switch in her purse and play it for hours, now could she?
He was already on his way over, despite her protests.
"It's probably rigged, Satoru-san. You'll spend more trying to win it than you would if you just bought it!" She said, trying and failing to stop him.
It was 500 yen per play, that was like 5 dollars a try! It didn't even come with any games or anything, she wouldn't be able to use it!
He was undeterred, already swiping his playcard and doing his thing, leaning this way and that in his way as he measured the area out in his mind, making an alarming amount of adjustments. It wasn't a full claw, just a pincher, and it spun a little as he adjusted it. He wiggled it a bit more before pushing the button. The first one spun around uselessly, not able to close around the box, before it rose back up. Gojo swiped the card again, scarily focused.
It dropped, landing perfectly around the box and half of the box actually lifted into the air before it lost its hold, leaving it standing on end, and Gojo swiped the playcard again before it even got all the way back to the start, aiming the pinchers directly over the box, and it dropped farther, bringing the box down with it, leaning against the claws as they clamped shut. The angle meant the box rested more weight on one claw than the other, and much higher, and astonishingly that was enough to keep it clutched in the claws as it drifted over to the hole and dropped it right in.
Gojo's glasses had slid slightly down his face while he measured his final attempt and he met her astonished eyes over his dark glasses, his expression full of well earned smugness as he fetched the box from the machine, holding it out to her.
"You're awesome, Satoru-san, '' she said, slightly shellshocked, and he preened over the praise.
"I'm the Strongest after all!" He crowed, delighted, but she shook her head, holding her hand out to stop him.
"You are the coolest person I've ever met." she told him seriously, and a look of genuine surprise crossed over his face. His perfect skin was tinged faintly red, and she realized he was blushing a little bit, embarrassed by the honest praise. He looked away first, and he seemed to shake himself a little, recovering quickly.
"Of course I am! I'm Gojo Satoru after all!" He said, trying to save a little face and shake off his embarrassment by playing up his ego.
"Thank you for taking me here, Satoru-san." She whispered, letting herself lean against his leg and wrap one arm around. Her plush was resting on the floor, her other hand still holding on to it tightly.
"Anytime, Midori-chan!" He chirped, like he hadn't gone out of his way to make sure the seventh day of her new life was a good one despite the rocky start.
Was she a bad person for having fun like this?
She wasn't actually a child or anything. She wasn't four, and here she was, letting a bunch of highschool students take care of her like she couldn't take care of herself. They were kids themselves, they shouldn't have the responsibility of taking care of someone else like this. Gojo was working so hard to make her happy here, and wasting his money on her.
Gojo poked her none too gently on the forehead, making her jump a little. He was staring at her expectantly.
"Want to keep going up or cash this in and go look for a video game store?"
Huh.
"Maybe just look for anything interesting then move on if we don't find anything?" She offered and he nodded, stuffing the heavily weighted box in the overflowing bag of prizes.
The next floor was full of smaller kid friendly prizes, and to her delight, a few mini claw machines, intended for smaller children. She rushed over, but the prizes were disappointingly small. A spring, a few bouncy balls, a few tiny figurines and candy were the extent of the prizes. Gojo offered the playcard, but she waved him off. Not worth the price at all.
The larger machines were apparently idol focused so they skipped that section and moved on. Maybe if Todo's idol was around, she would try to find some merch for him.
The sixth floor was plush heaven, and she was practically frothing at the mouth as she climbed Gojo's tree-like legs to get a better view. He laughed, bending over to do so, which kinda negated the purpose of her climbing up him, so she climbed onto his back instead, making him laugh harder, and she was giggling too soon enough as he started to straighten up, forcing her to cling to him, soon ending up with him giving her a piggyback ride. He wandered, giving her ample time to peer into each one.
She finally found one she liked, full of fuzzy black fluff balls with soulful eyes and he had a target picked out and he was positioning the claw when his phone rang, and he fumbled with his phone to hand it to her without looking away from the machine..
"Answer it for me will you?" He said, still laser focused on the claw machine.
Ugh, even when she was four she still had to talk on the phone. She took it anyway, flipping it open uncertainly. Did she have to hit a button or was it already answered?
"Hello?" She asked into the phone, holding it up to her ear. It was probably already answered right?
"I'm trying to contact Gojo Satoru?" An uncertain voice asked hesitantly in her ear. Ah good it had answered the call automatically.
"This is his secretary, may I take a message for him?" She answered, trying her best to sound as official as possible. Judging from the way Gojo's shoulders shook softly, it didn't work well.
"He is being summoned back to the trial. Failure to arrive in a timely manner will result in proper punishment."
"They said they need you back for the trial or else you'll get put in time out or spanked or something, Satoru-san." She told him, making her voice as serious as possible and keeping the phone on her ear so that the person could, and the woman on the phone freaked out.
"Did they say that?" Gojo howled, plush safely on its way to the exit now, and he crumbled to the ground he was giggling so hard.
"No- no, Gojo-sama- no, Gojo-sama !" The woman was stammering loudly in her ear, trying to protest, not knowing that she was inaudible to him.
He snatched the phone from her, holding it up to his own ear.
"I'll make sure to be there quickly then, alright?" He practically growled, and hung up mid horrified protest.
She grabbed the plush from the machine, heading back downstairs quickly, and Gojo was still wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, bursting out laughing randomly as he tried to hand the DS box to the employee.
She took it from him and handed it to the starstruck employee, making her jolt back to reality instead of staring at the admittedly wondrous sight of Gojo Satoru absolutely hysterical with laughter. His glasses had slid down his nose again, leaving his heart stopping eyes in plain view.
No wonder the woman was practically frozen. She didn't have hormones yet, and she still froze a bit when she locked eyes with him. How was he just so flipping pretty? If she grew up half as beautiful as him she would look like a goddess.
The starstruck lady handed her the DS, wishing them a good day as they left, Gojo mostly under control but still smiling wildly.
They probably made an interesting sight, walking into the Judgement Hall again. She had two plushies, one cradled in each arm, and Gojo was hauling a bag of goodies behind him.
One secretary spotted him and turned red in an instant.
"Gojo-sama!" She squeaked, drawing his eyes right to her and a slightly feral delighted grin. Like a shark who smelled blood in the water.
"Are you the one who threatened to spank me?" He asked, his head tilting to look down on them. His tone was so flirtatious and vaguely dangerous that the three women next to her froze just like she did.
"No- Gojo-sama! The council said for you to- for you to be back or they would have to punish you!" She finally finished, and honestly her composure was incredible, her final words sounding almost firm and controlled.
"Those old men? Ugh, now I'm really happy I didn't take too long." Gojo said, and he stuck his tongue out in disgust. The other secretaries giggled among themselves, but the one Gojo had addressed stayed admirably steady, only the slightest quaver of laughter in her voice as she told him he could go inside whenever he was ready.
Really those women were the first women she had seen of the workers here, and all of them were quite young and attractive young women. She'd be surprised if one of them were older than 21.. And it looked like 90% of the council were men too. Figured that they were sexist as well as generally being horrific people. She should get those girls a gift basket and a six pack of pepper spray.
He walked in just as irreverently as he did the first time, and it made more of a stir as people took in the pile of prizes that they hauled in with them.
"Gojo-san, please take your place among the accused." The head Sexist Jerk ordered, and Gojo could have broken his neck rolling his eyes as he set her down on the barricade to saunter over to where Suguru and Riko were standing. The bag of prizes sat on the ground next to her for safekeeping.
For nearly thirty seconds, they stood there, the lead man shuffling papers around, wasting his own valuable time for dramatic effect. Was he expecting a drumroll? Gojo glanced her way, so she mimed playing the drums and he cracked up, making Geto elbow him fiercely.
"The council has found the accused to be innocent of wrongdoings, and the merging of Riko Amanai with Tengen-sama has been temporarily sustained until it can be reevaluated at a later date or until the situation becomes unstable." Gojo yawned, like he had known it all along and Geto slumped slightly in relief, but Riko burst into tears on the spot.
She hopped down, bringing her plush with her, holding the second plush to Riko as an offer of comfort, and she took it gratefully, burying her face in it. Geto had his hand reassuringly on her shoulder, leaning in close as an additional shield from the audience, and she didn't miss the way Gojo's eyes lingered on his hand before he leaned closer too, on her other side. Ask for a hug later dude, he needed it too. He said something to her, his tone teasing, and got a watery laugh from her.
Slowly, the crowd of people watching faded away, and Geto led them out of the building entirely. She went back for the bag of prizes, excitedly pointing out various items to Riko, a little distraction as she composed herself.
Yaga found them outside, followed by Yu-nii, Nanami, and Shoko. Kuroi found her way out seconds later, and the desperate hug that she gave Riko wouldn't have been out of place in a Studio Ghibli movie.
For now at least, Riko had permission to live a little longer. Like that wasn't a horrific thing to have in doubt.
Yaga led the way to several cars. She climbed into the car with Yu-nii, Nanami, and Yaga, waving Gojo, Ghetto, and Riko into the other car. They needed some time to spend together, without a four year old underfoot. Besides, she hadn't seen Yu-nii in forever. Kuroi seemed to be bullying the driver out of the seat, climbing her way into the drivers side, and Shoko climbed into the passenger's seat, interrupting Gojo and Geto's argument over it.
She was in the middle, a seating position she likely would be stuck with for a long time, Yu-nii on her right and Nanami on her left. Yaga climbed into the passenger's seat, but she caught the warning glare that he gave to the driver. Not a Jujutsu High assigned driver then.
The trip back to Jujutsu High was far slower than the trip from it, but it wasn't too long of tiredly slumping against her beloved adoptive brother's side before he was carrying her out of the car.
Gojo's car had stopped for fast food, McDonalds again and she was handed her second happy meal of the day as they all piled into the movie room. You'd think they had just finished fighting off an alien invasion in New York or an intense tournament from the level of exhaustion in the room, not simply fighting a corrupt group of assholes for a girl's right to live. Gojo also pulled out the bag of candy from the prize bag that he still was toting around with him, spreading it out on the table at the back of the room, where it was promptly devoured. It was like a swarm of locusts had descended on it.
The movie, Studio Ghibli again, didn't even get halfway through before half the room was fast asleep, and she squirmed her way out from under Yu-nii, who was leaning on her, to go and brush her teeth and change into pajamas before stumbling back and dropping into the pile of people. She was half sprawled out over what she thought was probably Nanami's back, and Gojo wrapped an arm around her the moment she made contact. It was hard to tell who was who, with all the uniforms still on. Her new pink Pretty Cure plushie ended up as a pillow, shared by someone else with dark hair who spotted it, and she caught the eye of Yaga as he picked his way through the pile of half asleep students.
He settled down on the floor, just to the left of the door, like he was keeping watch for them. He probably was. How often could they do this, celebrating a major victory all together? He pulled out a bit of yarn from somewhere, and some needles, and started knitting slowly, the clack of needles quiet amid the whispered complaints and the movie still playing, ignored.
She let her eyes slip shut. For now at least, they all could sleep safely. Better take this chance while she had it, at least.
Her first nightmare was of Yu-nii getting eaten alive, a cursed spirit that looked like a twisted caricature of a giant bear crunching down on his right leg as he screamed for Nanami to run.
She woke up with a jolt, and laid there with her eyes wide open for a long time. Couldn't have the good times without the bad it seemed.