Y'all Need Therapy (I'm Not Qualified for this)

by DragonOfMoss

Crossposted from Ao3. SI-OC, except she's a 22 year old college student, turned 4 year old child. All she has is a psychology degree (almost), her cuteness, and a shaky, secondhand version what happened in the manga. At not quite 3 feet tall, she's got the upper body strength, but she can't NOT help these poor kids. Updated daily until caught up to Ao3. Gojo/Geto are the main ship.

22. If you're scared and you know it,

Thursday was somehow uneventful. She wasn't sure if her prayers had been answered or it was just chance, but they barely left their room except for when absolutely needed. For all Oba-san's threats of making them work, she didn't push either of them in the slightest, just knocked occasionally to make sure they were still there. Probably making sure they were still alive as well.

It was just the peace they both needed.

She cried three times anyway.

She wasn't sure if it was simply leftover stress from yesterday, overwrought emotions, or just her own brain freaking out for no reason, expecting something bad to happen. Without anything particularly stressful happening, she just freaked out anyway.

Satoru played DS with her for most of the day, lying on the bed, and she laid on top of him like the world's clingiest child. They played multiplayer games, some familiar, most not, and when she got too freaked out to keep playing, she'd put hers down and he'd start playing some unfamiliar RPG while she watched or napped.

She did get him to nap for the proposed three hours, and then some. He went to sleep around two and woke up close to six. Satoru wasn't predisposed to letting that fly without a little vengeance, and he'd chased her playfully around the room for a solid minute until it went from fun to scary, she panicked and hid under the bed.

He spent twenty minutes after that coaxing her out, even bringing an onigiri as bait, like he was trying to convince a feral cat to stop hiding. She knew he wouldn't hurt her, wasn't even actually chasing her, but she was shaking like a leaf anyways.

They ate food when the Oba's brought it up, moved to the bathroom as a unit, but otherwise stayed put. She was able to stand outside and wait for him those times, but it left her legs all shaky. She didn't go to use the bathroom herself when he finally came out until nearly ten minutes later, when she was able to stand under her own power again, and even then, he had to carry her back to the room when she managed to fight the door open.

The thought of going back to school someday sickened her. How the hell was she supposed to survive that long? She'd never feel safe there again, not with only Nishinoya by her side. She felt guilty about that, she knew he'd do his best, but even if she was safe, she wouldn't feel it. It hurt to think that maybe that feeling of safety had been lost forever.

So, all in all a slow, easy day.

The night was harder.

She woke up, not even before midnight even, screaming her little head off, and Satoru freaked. Her heart was pounding, she couldn't catch her breath. The sound of Yuji whispering Nanami's name echoed in her ears so loud it almost drowned out her heartbeat.

"What can I do?" Satoru asked frantically, hovering like he was afraid to touch her, like she might shatter.

"Nanami…" She managed to gasp out, trying to explain why she was so shaken, and before she could force out another word the ground vanished from underneath her. He teleported them, right into a familiar hallway and damn near threw the door open, so hard it smashed into the wall solidly, doubtlessly breaking something. A painting, maybe.

Nanami had bolted upright the moment Satoru swung the door open and was out of bed by the time the door hit the wall, his stance defensive and low for approximately three seconds until he recognized exactly who was standing there.

The fact that she was crying hysterically at the mere sight of him probably helped, and Satoru held her out to Nanami, like an offering, or a changing of the guard.

"Nanami?" She asked tearfully, trying and failing to hold back her sobs, and he finally reached out to take her awkwardly. She squirmed immediately to latch onto him and bury her face in his shoulder, and his hand came up to pat her back awkwardly.

Eventually, when she continued crying, Nanami sat down uncertainly, settling her in his lap and freeing up his hand to rest comfortingly on her head. His other one wrapped around her, a reassuringly tight hug.

She sobbed into his shoulder for an embarrassingly long time.

"I'm sorry for waking you up." She apologized shakily once she had enough breath back to speak.

"Don't worry about it." Nanami said immediately.

Hah.

She'd worry about the stars falling from the sky if she only thought enough people weren't.

He didn't push her away yet, so she stayed where she was. Maybe it was unfair, but the thought of going back to their room, in the dark and the silence felt unbearable. She could feel each of his breaths, steady, unlabored. He'd been so exhausted when he-

She didn't want to think about it.

It took maybe twenty minutes for Nanami to finally start getting antsy. Even then, she hugged him tightly for another thirty seconds before she climbed down off of his bed and back to Satoru, who immediately picked her up again.

There was a moment of awkward staring between the two boys, she could almost hear Nanami's nonverbal question, probably something like 'what the fuck' or 'what the hell did you do' maybe even a little 'why me' in there too.

Then Satoru teleported back to their room and their little stare-down ended inconclusively. Without a doubt, Nanami would be telling Yu-nii in the morning, and he'd be (politely) banging down the front door to find out what the heck was going on come morning. Not the best solution, but she could acknowledge that waiting until morning could work.

"What'd you see?" Satoru asked, clearly trying to not sound too eager. He probably understood that this was a very stressful situation for her, but he also really really wanted to know more. She appreciated his semi-successful efforts to restrain himself.

"Just another repeat. That time when Nanami dies. Speaking of that, if you ever see a grey-haired cursed spirit with stitches along his face and arms, looks completely human besides, kill him and feed him to Suguru. It's important for Suguru to eat him, but it's more important that he dies, so if you have to pick, go for the kill. He kills Nanami, Junpei, Junpei's mom, a lot of other people, and comes super close to killing Nobara, one of your students. Also, he severely traumatizes Yuji. That boy goes through enough, and he's gonna suffer a lot already. We've got to lighten the load." The passion in her voice kept rising, and she was pacing by the time she got to the topic of Yuji. She hated what he'd done to Yuji. Would he ever be able to smile again, in the same way he did before?

Satoru picked her up off the ground with one hand and hurled her on the bed before throwing himself at her like a wrestler, landing right on top of her. The bed kept her from being super smushed, but she was still completely trapped. He rearranged himself carefully, making sure she was still pinned firmly to the bed, until she was firmly trapped in his embrace, it was more of a wrestling hold really, her arms firmly held in place.

"Go back to sleep now." He urged.

Like hell.

He read her instant refusal all over her face, and so he settled visibly down on the bed, letting his muscles relax. He wasn't moving an inch.

So, she set her jaw, and she waited. She knew him. There was no way he would be able to outlast her.

Her resolve lasted about five minutes. Then, her head started drooping, her eyes closing for just a bit too long. Satoru might have laughed softly, and he definitely moved somewhat, but she was too far under to do more than realize it vaguely.

She woke up screaming again maybe an hour later.

It was a long night.

By the time the sky started to lighten, she'd gotten maybe five hours of disturbed sleep, a generous estimate. Every time she woke, Satoru rushed to soothe her. Eventually, Satoru stopped bothering to leave, staying right by her side so that when she inevitably woke up in a fit of terror, he'd be there already. She didn't just have nightmares, no, that'd be too easy, she woke up right into a panic attack twice, struggling to get her breath under control.

Satoru finally gave up on trying to get her any more sleep the final time she woke up, just after dawn, and for once she didn't wake up screaming so much as silently panicking, thrashing around frantically in the blanket wrapped around her. Before the shriek building in her throat could come out, she was free, Satoru teleported her the moment he realized she was struggling.

He didn't say anything, just settled her easily in his arms and headed out of the room to hunt down some breakfast.

Oba-chan took one look at her face and rushed over, only her rapid flinch and Satoru's quick reflexes saving her from touch that would undoubtedly send her right back over the edge. IT wasn't that she didn't like her, she just didn't really trust them yet. She wasn't mentally prepared to handle people touching her who she didn't trust right now.

She felt about as mentally stable as a fractured pane of glass. Even a little pressure could cause it to spread. Yesterday was a bandage on the cracks, but it hadn't even started healing yet, still raw and painful.

There was an awkward pause when Satoru pulled her out of reach of Oba-chan, a hand outstretched to stop her from getting closer. Satoru's whole posture was purely defensive, legs bent, hand outstretched to ward Oba-chan off, half turned as if to run. He recovered in a snap, straightening like it had never happened, but she knew Oba-chan was sharp enough to have caught the implications of both of their reactions.

The way Oba-chan relaxed, her shoulders loosening, her posture relaxing into a more comfortable slouch couldn't be anything but deliberate. She offered a cup of water, just holding it out loosely. It was the epitome of non-threatening, and it dropped her guard for an instant before she scrambled to raise it again. The witch caught it, Oba-chan had the observational skills of fucking Satoru Gojo, and her hackles were up now. She was glaring over Satoru's shoulder at the woman when he eventually skirted around Oba-chan to reach the fridge, where presumably some breakfast ready onigiri rested.

She waved, because of course she did. She knew psychology too, Oba-chan wasn't going to worm her way in without some resistance.

"She's a psychology girlie too." She said without thinking much on it. Satoru's blank stare said she'd said something wrong.

Girlie. Was that not slang yet?

"She's got some psychology tricks. I don't like it." She elaborated.

"Right." He said, understanding a bit more.

"Mirroring. She made herself relax to defuse the situation. She offered water, another way to make herself less threatening!"

"So… She did what she was supposed to do?"

She scoffed.

"Maybe!" She had to admit.

She just didn't like it.

Apparently, Satoru knew better than to tease her when she was being sleep deprived and irrational, because he didn't argue further.

"Do you want to hang out here some more or see about visiting the school?"

"School?" She squawked, rounding on him from where he'd been staring backwards like Oba-chan was going to tail them back to their own room, that she'd given them, in her house.

"Gotta do something." He answered, and she scrambled out of his arms now that they were safely in their room.

She needed clothes, not just a nightgown. To do that, she needed to get dressed first, which means she needed somewhere safe.

Outfit, outfit. She basically had black shorts and a few different shirts. She'd just grab one and go. Maybe the darkest color, a navy blue, but there was also the bright pink one, she like that one too. Decisions.

Hm…

Satoru was eating, he'd put her onigiri, not bonito flakes, but filled with eggs and green onions. She'd reserve her judgment, but she didn't have high hopes.

Could she get to the bathroom and back without panicking? Should she push herself or would it make things worse? Would continuing to rely fully on Satoru for safety only hurt her ability to function without him later?

It mostly came down to the question of whether she trusted that she was safe in the house without Satoru. She didn't, but Satoru was still here, just a short ways away. He could teleport. If she managed to scream, he'd find her, he could see through walls. The only reason he wouldn't be able to see her is if she hid, which she didn't usually do purposefully. It just happened more or less. Would her disappearance be enough to draw his attention?

She should just eat first and then drag him along.

It took little effort to haul herself up onto the bed, her cursed energy overflowing after the lazy day and rough night with very little outlet. Maybe she could go for a run with Satoru later, work some energy out.

The egg onigiri thingy was decent at best, but she ate it. She just didn't like eggs all that much, or green onions.

"Do we need to get permission to go?" She asked eventually when Satoru and she had finished eating. He was circling Nishinoya like a shark, and the cursed corpse was watching him right back, tracking Satoru's movements with a neck that could turn much too far, bend too far back.

"Probably." Satoru agreed, looking up for a moment from their standoff.

Nishinoya kicked him in the shin, hard. Hard enough for Satoru to yelp and leap to the safety of the bed, safely out of his range.

"Nishinoya-kun, be nice!" She cried, rushing to snatch him up. He immediately hugged her possessively back, almost bristling when Satoru looked back, bruised shin doubtlessly healed.

"No fighting!" She ordered when it looked like Satoru was ready for a rematch. Nishinoya had tensed too, ready to swing.

"No!" She warned again when she saw Satoru's pissy face.

"He started it!" Satoru argued, like some injustice had occurred by not letting a special grade sorcerer beat up a cursed corpse that wasn't even half his size.

"I don't care, it's finished. Nishinoya-kun, don't be mean to Satoru-nii, please. Satoru-nii, stop instigating!"

"Insta- He attacked me!"

"You were dissecting him with your eyes, and purposely leaving him behind. He shouldn't have chosen violence, especially when he could use his words. I'm sure he's sorry." She turned her head and locked eyes with Nishinoya.

Even with his stitched smiling expression she could still read the refusal on his face.

"I'm sure he's sorry." She repeated, more firmly.

If Nishinoya breathed, he would have sighed, but he faced Satoru all the same.

"My apologies, Satoru Gojo. I won't harm you again."

That was a lot more well-spoken than she'd expected. A lot more than Satoru did too, because he just gaped at the doll.

"You're supposed to acknowledge it, if nothing else." She prodded when Nishinoya's expression changed to something a little more annoyed.

"Right. It's no big deal." Satoru agreed awkwardly, sounding almost clumsy in comparison.

Good enough.

"I need to get dressed, so one of us has got to go." She said finally, and Satoru nodded, skirting warily around her and Nishinoya.

She held Nishinoya out to Satoru, who froze on the spot like he was being offered a lit explosive.

"Get along." Not a request. An order. Satoru took Nishinoya obediently.

It only took her a minute or two to actually get dressed, two more to wrestle her shoes on, mostly because she neglected to untie them when she took them off last time.

She waited another six minutes, just to maximize their adjustment to each other, then she opened the door.

They were suspiciously at ease with each other. Nishinoya had his arms crossed coolly, leaning into Satoru's leg. Satoru himself was too relaxed to be intentional, he didn't even look over when the door opened, as if too at ease to be bothered staying alert.

He wasn't even that relaxed normally.

"What happened?" She asked immediately.

Something had to have happened.

There was no way something didn't happen.

Yet

"Nothing!" Satoru drawled, like she was crazy for thinking of it.

"Nothing." Nishinoya confirmed.

Was there a new dent in the walls or something? A broken picture frame?

Whatever they did, they left no signs.

"Alright..." She said slowly, "ready to go then?"

Satoru took a step back and Nishinoya fell backwards for a second before he caught himself. Satoru's little smirk said it'd been intentional.

Progress, if nothing else. They could get along out of fear of the consequences at least.

"I'll be out in a minute." Satoru called, going back in to change himself. He'd been wearing sleep pants and a random shirt he'd found. She got the feeling he usually slept shirtless and was only doing so in an attempt to make sure she was comfortable. Considering she didn't care either way, it didn't register as scary the way it would've when she was an adult, it wasn't necessary, but deeply appreciated. It was thoughtful as fuck, considering he was aware of her hangups. He just didn't know how they usually extend to others.

He was so sweet, God she loved him so much!

Satoru walked back out, still fighting his shoes on, and stopped dead at the sight of something. He was staring at her.

"Something wrong?" She asked, a bit more worried.

"Nothing!"

No, it was definitely something.

"Just your expression." He muttered, a bit embarrassed. Yeah, her thoughts were usually reflected almost perfectly by her face. It had been four years since Covid and she still wore masks daily, it wasn't exactly surprising that her ability to hide her facial expressions was low.

"I love you, Nii-san." She said rather than tease him as he seemed to have been bracing himself for.

The slightly distressed noise he made was heartbreaking.

"You've got a lot of people who love you, Nii-san, did you know?"

"Yeah… you're so smart, Midori-chan, how'd that even happen?" Satoru's smile was bright, his eyes only a little wet, and he leapt forward to scrub at her hair as he loved to do, despite her shriek.

"Only compared to you!" She sassed. His dramatic gasp was theater worthy.

He finished ruining her hair and she whined as she struggled to run her fingers through it and tame it into some semblance of orderly.

"Do you think Geto-kun would do my hair?" She asked once her hair was semi-orderly and Satoru looked less like he was about to burst into tears at the thought of being loved. The idiot. Amazing superpowered idiot.

Not for the first time, she wondered what the hell the higher ups and Satoru's clan were thinking, doing this. Isolating Satoru, forcing him to fight at such a young age, what were they thinking, that he'd turn out just peachy? They were lucky he was such a genuinely good person, that he'd never considered his comrades as expendable. They could just as easily have raised a sorcerer who didn't care who died as long as the curse did too, and it would have been so easy for him to slip, just one little annoyance building into another.

A child who never bonded with others, who only had superiors, weaker comrades and enemies. And they would never have been his superiors wrong, he never would have tolerated their failures for so long before deciding he was better off making his own decisions. A teenager who had never experienced friendship before, all the changes, all the loneliness that he wouldn't know what to make of.

They were so lucky that Satoru was the person he was, when anyone else would've turned out differently. By rights he should have, that type of isolation in childhood, the lack of bonds, could have stunted his social development for life. Should have, even. Instead, he had close friends, a boyfriend, and took care of a younger child he wasn't even actually related to like a professional.

Not for the first time, she said earnestly, "I'm so proud of you. You're such a kind person, Satoru-nii, you didn't need to be, but you chose to anyway. I'm so happy I got to meet you."

Satoru, like always, went beet red and even with his face in his hands, hiding it as best as he could, she could still see it. It went down his neck, to the tips of his ears.

"Stop that!" He cried, emotional, "you and Suguru both, quit it!"

"No. We love you. We want to make sure you know it."

"My ego's big enough already, everyone says it. You're just feeding it."

She frowned at him.

"Saying we're proud of you doesn't feed your ego, it just makes you feel appreciated. You do so much, why wouldn't we want to make sure you know how much we appreciate it?"

"I don't do nearly enough." He argued with a frown.

"You do. Everything you do is enough, because you chose to do it. If you take one mission a year or five hundred, it's still more than enough. I don't care what the higher up people say, you're always doing enough. Whatever you can handle will always be enough."

He still sighed. Seems she wasn't getting through to that little insecurity quite yet. She'd chip away at it, slowly but surely.

"And you don't have an ego. You've got confidence and youthful arrogance. Enjoy it while it lasts."

"What are you, four or forty?" He sassed and he reached for her hair again. She shrunk away defensively. He spread his arms out, making himself bigger, and wiggled his fingers threateningly.

"I'll drop it, I'll drop it!" She yelled, calling the ceasefire, and he let his hands drop. She didn't straighten until he took a step back, hands up innocently.

Sus.

Super sus.

"I'm done." He said with amusement.

Still, she eyed him with distrust. Her poor hair was gonna start falling out if he kept messing with it.

He was done getting ready it seemed like, but he did go back for a puffy jacket that she honestly didn't remember seeing before. A tag hung off it. The numbers were high, even to her uneducated understanding of Japanese yen. He didn't even bother unzipping it, just forced it over her head, making her struggle to get her head and her arms through all the right holes. It was nice and warm, but where had it come from?

Satoru hadn't spent his free time relaxing, had he? The idiot. He'd been fucking shopping.

"What's that look for?" He asked, undoubtedly spotting her displeased face.

"You shopped instead of relaxing!"

The guilt on his face was proof enough. It wasn't the type of guilt that said 'I've done something wrong' more of the 'I knew you'd disapprove' type of look.

"You did!"

"You're too cold, you needed a jacket, and I wanted some games to play with you. And some bottled water. Maybe a bit of food too."

God, he went shopping specifically for her too. The idiot.

"Satoru-nii, you were supposed to relax and spend time not taking care of me. Instead, you went shopping for me!"

"We relaxed plenty yesterday." He argued.

"We. We relaxed. People need alone time to enjoy their hobbies." She explained seriously. He was gonna hate her later because of this, she didn't know what she'd do if he did. He was still a child.

"My hobbies are playing video games and killing cursed spirits, it's not like I had many other options."

"That's it?"

"What else is there?"

Fair point. What hobby might Satoru like?

"Do you like sports? Volleyball? Soccer?"

"Never really tried it."

"Do you prefer to hit or kick things?"

He thought for a moment. "Hit?"

"Volleyball then. You're tall too, it would work. You'd be an awesome in just about any position, you're so athletic."

"You know a lot about volleyball?" He asked curiously.

"There's an anime in the future."

He giggled. "You see anime in the future?"

"And I've gotta wait years to actually see them! If the people who're supposed to make them don't die due to the butterfly effect."

"That's rough. Do you worry about that a lot?"

Nice probing question, Satoru. Too bad she knew those tricks.

"No more than normal." Perfect. Nonchalant enough to not ping any alarms, no blatant avoidance.

Yes, she dreaded never seeing her favorite anime again. One in particular would definitely never be made.

He seemed to accept it, luckily.

"Ready to go then?"

She nodded. He double checked her jacket, because he was a worrywart, but then he snatched her up by the hood like a troublesome toddler, and she realized exactly why he got her this damn jacket. Strong enough not to rip, warm, she probably looked fucking adorable like this, all squished and absolutely engulfed in rage.

"Hold me like a normal human!" She shouted, but he just grinned, delighted.

He carried her down the damn stairs that way. Oba-chan cooed and awwed like she was looking at a fucking baby panda. Even Oba-san giggled.

He was making a spectacle of her.

Brothers. Ugh. She never had to deal with this before.

It made her feel weirdly warm and fuzzy inside. It was the all-consuming rage, definitely.

Eventually, he did shift so that he was holding her loosely, one arm around her torso, looped under her arms, like a misbehaving dog. Bastard.

A few minutes into their walk, he just teleported the rest of the way to the police station.

He didn't bother actually carrying her properly, he just marched inside to start looking for Officer Nin. Given that he was Satoru Gojo, it took about three seconds of searching to locate wherever the hell the officer was.

He'd left Nishinoya behind too, she realized. Undoubtedly another snub in their cold war.

Officer Nin was hunkered down over a report, phone braced against his shoulder. He spotted them and immediately he used his free hand to snatch his beanie off, tossing it to the desk. How thoughtful. Too bad she disliked him on a mere principle now.

"Oi, Ninny. We're going to Jujutsu Highschool, Midori-chan wants to visit Junpei-kun."

"No." Officer Nin said immediately.

"Wasn't a question."

"You can't go there without supervision. I can't leave, there's a missing child. You'll have to go another time."

Missing kid?

"What happened? Where were they last seen?" She pressed.

Officer Nin just sighed, "You don't need to worry about that. We'll find him soon enough."

"What's his name?"

"Aoi Todo. He goes missing often enough, it isn't unusual." The officer answered finally with a sigh.

She looked up at Satoru sweetly.

"Can we go look for him too?" She asked, for all the world, a helpful little girl, not panicking at all about Todo himself being missing. Butterflies, butterflies.

Satoru must sense her meaning because he nods quickly.

"Then, Officer Nin has to take us to visit school!" She announced gleefully with childlike logic, ignoring the officer's protests to march right out of the office, Satoru on her heels.

"Aio, a student in the future? Kyoto school, right?"

"Tokyo, if you can swipe him before Yuki can get her hands on him. I shudder to think of what Todo could do if he was trained by you. A nightmare of an opponent. Hopefully, I can shove a little bit of social skills into his brain too. Maybe some antipsychotics, a bit of cognitive behavioral therapy-"

It hit her like a lightning bolt.

Their little friend group could have a leader.

Todo was assertive enough; he would easily be able to take the lead from her. She wouldn't have to think of kid games anymore, she would just be able to sit back and relax. It'd be perfect!

"We've gotta find Todo, we're gonna be friends!" She announced, like whether they were or weren't gonna search for Todo was ever in question.

"Where do we start?"

Hm.

"No idea. He likes to fight? He beat up a highschooler as a kid, just before Yuki got her hands on him. She's not allowed to have him this time, she's a horrible influence on people. I want Todo to be able to form genuine bonds without having to trick himself into it. I'm pretty sure Yuji was the only person who liked him, besides Yuki maybe, and Todo nearly forced his friendship with Yuji. That's really fucking sad. It's not gonna happen."

"If he's in foster care, Yaga-sensei could take him in once he's registered. The school would be safe, and he'd be able to train somewhere safe, not just beat up older kids." Satoru agreed.

"You'll like him, he's bold. He's so cool as a teenager, I can't wait to meet him!" She was bouncing a little, overexcited.

Satoru just laughed at her, letting her bound ahead like a fawn. She was excited, she might be able to meet Todo! The Todo, pillar of Yuji's mental health, who wouldn't be excited? His mind was fascinating!

Would he let her administer a child appropriate IQ test? Sure, they were about as trustworthy as the higher ups, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be interesting.

"He likes to fight… highschool students? Maybe a school then…" Satoru was clearly thinking out loud, keeping her in the loop.

"You can teleport, but how far could you see?" She asked consideringly, "I don't know what his cursed energy looks like, but I know his technique."

"Might help at least.

"He'd be about six or so, I don't know how old he was when he met Yuki, hopefully it's not too late and she didn't already get to him. His cursed technique is called Boogie Woogie."

Satoru cracked up at the name, because he was more of a child than she was.

"Don't diss the boogie, Satoru-nii. He's a fucking nightmare of an opponent. When he claps his hands, he swaps places with something of an appropriate level of cursed energy. People, animals, cursed tools. Maybe animals too, I didn't quite know. I never saw him try it on you, but I don't think people could resist it and it's so simple that it uses extremely little energy, from what I understand. He can swap hundreds of times. I think he might be able to clap without both hands or something, it's been a while since I've seen that part. He's smart as a whip too; he knows how to use it. Letting himself get thrown just to swap places with the one who threw him, it's so cool!"

"Can he only swap himself with others?"

"No, he can swap two targets, he doesn't have to swap himself. Also, just clapping doesn't mean he has to swap either."

Satoru was actually considering it, she could see him connecting the dots, thinking through how damn useful of a technique it was.

"Swap places… a bit spatial then, movement. Boogie Woogie, it'll have some flair then…" He was still thinking out loud, like he was trying to identify the taste of the dish from a mere name and description.

"He's got black hair, I'd guess that he's probably a bit tall for his age. He's got more muscles than the Hulk when he grows up, he's all around huge. I think he ends up a little taller than you even."

"So I am tall!" Satoru crowed, stopping his little planning session to boast. If she ended up short, she was blaming childhood malnutrition.

She ate breakfast not that long ago. She didn't need to eat more. Good to note.

"Not as tall as Suguru." She reiterated.

Was it true?

Who knows.

Was it funny?

Yes.

"Ugh. He can't be taller than me!" Satoru wailed, dramatic as always. His dramatics were attracting attention to them. If anyone looked too snooty about it, she'd make a face at them. She'd make sure the world let Satoru be as dramatic as he wanted to be.

"So, can you find him?" She asked.

"We can try. Want to hunt some curses while we go? Might as well be useful." Satoru's hopeful tone belied his casual word choice and body language.

"Are you alright with potentially coming home with another Shikigami for me?"

It was a fair concern. The one and only time they tried this game, she adopted the target.

She didn't regret it, no, she adored Doomslug. She'd be delighted to get a new friend. But she also had to conserve her resources. Choice overload sucked.

"I'll say no." He said, far too confidently.

She stopped. Looked at him.

She tilted her head, deliberately looking up in a way that made her seem even smaller and turned on the puppy dog eyes. She even grabbed his pant leg cutely. Yeah, if there's one ability she had, it was being a cute little kid.

"Right. No curse hunting." He agreed quickly.

"If it's a danger to others, go for it. Just keep me as far away as safely possible please, I don't need to see death and destruction in my real life as well as my dreams." She offered, a compromise, and judging by the way his expression turned serious, he understood the sentiment well enough. Well, understood was probably a little strong, acknowledged was more likely. He could agree to accept things he didn't understand, like why someone wouldn't want to start training as early as possible.

She was fucked up enough already.

He snatched her up, making her finally drop the cute act in favor of giggling as he swung her around, intentionally wild. It left her a bit dizzy as he spun in circles, but it didn't lessen the giggles.

"Time to hunt down a missing kid."

"It really would be handy if we knew where he was last seen."

"Think he'll tell us?"

"Not unless it's close by. Maybe not even then. He'll be on the lookout for us to run off too."

Satoru nodded and started walking. They rounded a corner, putting the station out of sight, and the world shifted instantly as they landed on a rooftop and Satoru peered around.

Maybe this was a bit of a big ask.

"You should probably prioritize places near active curses. If he's in trouble, not just having run off, it could be important to find him quickly. I don't doubt he can already hold his own, but still." She suggested as Satoru spun slowly in a circle. Todo was still a kid.

Satoru nodded slowly, his visible eyes staring blankly through the floor of the building at something only he could see. He set her down.

"There's a smaller curse, getting stronger. It'll kill the lady it's attached to in about a month. Sit tight." He explained, but before he vanished to take care of it, he put a hand on her forehead. She felt the strangest sensation of being hugged by him, but he wasn't currently hugging her. Her own cursed energy was rising to attention, something vaguely aggressive on the alert, but then Satoru was gone. Only a phantom feeling lingered.

What was that that he did? He definitely did something, but what was it? Did he just use his curse energy to cover her own? It was all she could feel around her, like she was drenched in it. Her sensing abilities were limited at best, she'd never really focused on it or tried to improve it, but it almost felt like he was still standing there, right next to her.

It hummed in a way that she felt right to her bones, slowly settling down until she felt heavy with it, a weight settling on her shoulders. Every time she moved, she heard it crackle and pop like fireworks, a strangely fizzy sound. It figured that his cursed energy sounded like pop-rocks, sweet, energetic, a healthy dose of chaos.

If she had to guess what it meant, he was saying to other sorcerers 'stay the fuck away'. Nice. She also wanted other sorcerers to stay as far away from her as possible.

It took probably thirty seconds or so for him to reappear, curse presumably exorcized. She had been handling his absence like a pro, she dared to say. The fact that he sure felt like he was still right there helped dramatically. Her cursed energy was wary, bristling like a frightened cat, but it was slowly settling down as it adjusted.

"What'd you do before you left?" She asked, just to be sure her guess was right.

"Basically, what I usually do with Infinity, but with a bunch of straight cursed energy instead. Telling anyone who might notice you that I'm the one protecting you."

"Was there anyone?"

He shrugged, the bastard, and said, "just a few bounty hunters. No way they'd risk it without knowing how soon I'm coming back. It'd be suicide."

"Why are there bounty hunters?" She asked slowly, and he shrugged again.

"Could be targeting either of us. Most likely you though, they're super weak."

Lovely.

"Why?"

If he shrugged one more damn time, she'd kick him.

He shrugged. "Who knows. Want to ask them?"

Before she could successfully kick him, he'd picked her up and suddenly they were an entirely different rooftop.

Two terrified men recoiled from Satoru's sudden appearance, one man even moving to leap from the edge, but a spark of Blue from Satoru's fingers dragged him right back, forcing him to his knees in front of her and Satoru. The other saw the fate of his fellow and dropped to his knees willingly, his hands in the air.

"We weren't doing anything!" The willing man shouted desperately, his eyes wild.

"Just hanging out on a rooftop watching little kids for fun then?" Satoru challenged, setting her down safely next to him. She clung to his pant leg, looking up at him. There was something ugly on his face, a disgust that she didn't normally see from him, as he looked at the bounty hunters. Was it a product of his own childhood, or a hatred brought on by Toji? Probably a mix of both.

"Be nice, Satoru-nii. You're scaring them." She chastised gently, intently slurring her words childishly. Make a few r's into a bit more of a w sound, keep her face a mask of innocent curiosity, with a touch of concern. She's just a baby, maybe a bit stupid, definitely not any smarter than the average child her age.

If she could establish herself as a nice, friendly, but innocent kid, maybe word would spread a little, assuming Satoru didn't kill them. At least it would knock off a few of the softer-hearted ones. It was one thing to say you're gonna kill or kidnap a kid, it was quite another when the kid's advocating for you. And probably the only thing stopping the nuclear bomb of a teenager from turning them into a hundred-foot-long bloody smear on the ground.

She'd rather be underestimated anyway.

"Midori-chan," Satoru said, his tone sounding like he was gently instructing a young child, which was completely fair, "these people are bounty hunters. That means that they are here to hurt you, or take you away from me. That means you wouldn't see me ever again!"

"Never?" She asked, frowning.

"Never ever." He finished solemnly, and the bounty hunters were white as bone by now. "So, it's okay to be mean to them, because they were mean first. Do you understand now?"

"Just cause it's okay, it doesn't mean we should, right?" She asked slowly, uncertainly.

"That's true sometimes, but this time you should be. If you don't, it could mean that they might try and hurt you again!"

"What if they promise? A- uh… a vow! The special one!"

"I- I swear-" The one man who had dropped to his knees voluntarily, started to say, but Satoru's sharp eyes snapped over to him, stopping him dead. The way he paled even more, the sweat already visible on his face, he was terrified. Despite knowing they were probably bad guys, she felt a bit bad. They really were scared. The other guy was turning slightly blue, his lungs heaving as he fought for breath. She didn't see anything touching him, but she could guess at why. Her own cursed energy was just about snarling at the men. She could feel some at her feet, dripping from her arms slowly. A good quarter of it was outside her body already, doing whatever it felt like.

Satoru was making a statement. A loud one, undoubtedly visible for quite some distance.

"It's hard to force a vow. They have to have a strong incentive. I would too, considering I get my way whether they agree to it or not." Satoru said thoughtfully. His lopsided grin, with all the exposed teeth, looked more like a threat than anything expressing happiness.

"Maybe you could tell them to stop being bounty hunters?"

"They'd do that if I do what I want anyway."

Fair point.

Hm.

"Who hired you? How. Where. Why. Give me all the information you have about this mission, and I'll think about letting you leave alive." Satoru finally offered. She didn't miss the lack of any real promise.

"We don't know! They were anonymous! It was on a dark-web site, it's impossible to backtrack-"

"Did they want her alive or dead?"

"Alive. Explicitly. Threatened extreme retribution in the case of any- maiming. No payment. We weren't gonna hurt her, I swear!"

"How much." Satoru's tone couldn't even be described as a question. It was an order, plain and simple.

"A million. But-"

"Where were you supposed to take her?"

"We were supposed to go back to the site, show proof that we had her, then we'd get a quarter of the payment and further instructions. We didn't know anymore, it didn't tell us that she was your sister, we didn't know!"

"And if she wasn't?" Satoru's tone was icy, but his eyes were worse, cold in a way that felt far more dangerous than any spitting rage would be. "If she didn't have anyone to protect her? You still would've taken her from her home, sold her away to a stranger for money."

"We didn't…"

The other man was thrashing weakly now, the panicked flailing of a suffocating man. His mouth was open, gasping for air that couldn't reach his lungs. There was a visible dent in his throat, a large patch of skin turned white, the center turning black. He was gonna pass out soon. How long had he been without air? He was a sorcerer, sure, but he could only go so long…

"Satoru-nii. You're hurting him." She said worriedly.

Satoru said nothing, but his eyes flicked towards the struggling man. He seemed strangely uncertain, confused.

"He's gonna die." She pushed, more worriedly. Satoru didn't need to kill him, he was getting what he wanted!

"Midori-chan, I'm not the one doing that." He said, confused.

What?

Then who-

"Stop that! Stop it now!" She shouted, and her cursed energy was back in an instant, feeling like a kicked puppy, not even sure what it did wrong but knowing that someone was yelling at it. It dove right for the seal, hiding itself away. All of it.

The man dropped with a heaving gasp, one hand clutching at his frostbitten throat as he coughed and heaved for breath.

"You can't do that. Not without letting me know. He didn't hurt me at all." She explained, trying to stop the terror from leaking through. Her hands were shaking violently. Satoru's rage abated some at the sight, he softened.

"It's okay. I know you didn't mean it." He soothed, bending down to look her in the face on her level.

"I didn't tell it to do that." She whispered, once her face was blocked by his body. She was shaking like a leaf, and not just from the cold.

"Sorry. I should've realized that it wasn't you doing that and stopped it. It won't happen again, I'll make sure of it." He whispered back, too low for the terrified bounty hunters to hear.

"Why-"

"Later." He interrupted, and hauled her into his arms. The feeling of Infinity on her skin was a much-needed relief. They couldn't hurt her. She couldn't hurt them.

Everything's alright, at least for now. She didn't need to panic.

Satoru's attention flicked back to the two men. The injured guy was still coughing violently, the other one trying desperately to calm him, to keep him still. He'd half risen, still trying desperately to stay kneeling but also stop the other man from making any false moves that might trigger another act of violence.

Another.

Another.

Her trembling wasn't stopping so she abandoned any further attempt at acting and buried her face in his neck. She couldn't cry yet. She wasn't even the one who got hurt this time, she'd hurt someone else. She didn't deserve to cry about it.

"I won't order you to stop being bounty hunters. But, in exchange for your lives and being allowed to continue, you swear that every time you see a bounty on a child, you'll contact Jujutsu Highschool and inform them of it. If I ever discover that you've taken such a job again, I'll kill you. Children are never acceptable targets. Agreed?"

"Yes, yes, I swear! We'll report every one we find!" The uninjured man said quickly, and the injured one nodded. Hopefully that was enough for the vow to take root.

Satoru teleported them away without another word.

She started crying the moment the rooftop was out of sight.

"It's okay, it's okay, he'll be fine! He was a bad guy, he deserved it!" Satoru tried to soothe.

That wasn't the point. She'd hurt someone, she hadn't even known she was doing it! Her own cursed energy had chosen to do it, on its own!

What if it decided that Panda or Junpei were threats next? Ryu-kun, one of her classmates, her teacher? Officer Nin? She could attack anyone at any time, if the thing inside her only decided to do so. It already didn't like Satoru, if he was ever vulnerable while he was close to her, maybe even just sleeping, would it decide to take out the threat? What about Suguru? It could ruin everything, every bit of trust she was trying to build, gone in an instant.

She was dangerous.

"I don't wanna hurt people!" She blubbered between painful sobs.

"You won't, you won't! It never hurt anyone on its own before, it might not happen again! You scared it, yelling at it like that."

"I scared it? It scared me!" She argued back. It had been killing a man, strangling him to death, and it was scared? Because she'd yelled at it?

"You both scared each other. I don't think it'll do that again, and you know it can now, so you can stop it."

"It was gonna kill him." She whispered finally.

"You don't know that for sure. Maybe it just wanted him unconscious, so he couldn't hurt you."

Yeah, and maybe the higher ups actually cared about the sorcerers under their command. You don't strangle someone you don't intend to kill.

Her doubt was clear on her face, her jaw was shaking with the effort to hold off any more crying.

"It won't happen again."

He didn't know that. He couldn't promise that, not truly.

She still believed him.

Maybe she just wanted to believe, but...

She trusted Satoru.

She took a deep breath, still a bit trembling, but she felt steadier. Satoru said it would be alright. She trusted Satoru.

It would be alright.

"We've gotta find Todo." She said firmly, and Satoru straightened. He looked relieved, probably because she finally stopped crying. He had a crybaby for a little sister, he'd have to get thicker skin.

"Right." He picked her up again, slowly. She wasn't sure if he was deliberately telegraphing his movements or just overthinking them, but every careful touch seemed very deliberate.

Was he worried that her cursed energy would get set off again?

It wasn't there, surely he could tell? Every speck of it had hidden away. It left her feeling the cold that it had left behind a lot more sharply. She felt weak, like she truly was four-years old, clumsy. It was severely uncomfortable.

He teleported again, to a different rooftop, uncomfortably sloped. Satoru was completely stable of course, and she clung to him with uncomfortably weak muscles.

She hated this. She didn't realize how much her cursed energy was helping her until it was gone, it was a horribly vulnerable sensation.

Satoru teleported, still on the hunt. He picked off a small curse, a baby with spider legs that wouldn't leave her nightmares for a long time, before making a frustrated noise and teleporting again.

"Did you wanna call Officer and see if he has a lead or…?" She let herself trail off, gesturing to the city around them. Maybe it was a bit much for an effectively one-person team.

Satoru's nose scrunched up, distaste on his face, but he nodded. He pulled out his phone, dialing the number. Was he being petty and refusing to add it to his contacts or did that not exist yet? She didn't know old phones that well.

It dialed and just rang the first time, but before Satoru could finish punching the number in the phone rang. Clearly, Officer Nin had just missed it.

"Oi, where's the best place to look for A- no, we're both fine, we're looking for Aoi-kun. Where should we start?" Satoru asked roughly. He sounded like a gangster, the idiot, even his expression cartoonishly surly at having to ask Officer Nin for help.

She didn't hear Officer's response, but Satoru's expression somehow soured even more.

"We're gonna look no matter what. Might as well put us to good use." She offered Satoru, a potential script.

"We're still looking, might as well help us." Satoru summarized.

Ugh. That wasn't going to work. She made grabby hands at the phone and he handed it to her.

Officer Nin was still talking when she put it up to her ear.

"Hello? Mr. Officer? We're gonna look no matter what. If you can point us in the right direction, we might have half a hope of actually being useful. And, you'll know the general area where we are, not the general location of 'somewhere in Tokyo'." She argued quickly, not letting him interject.

He was silent for a solid few seconds.

"Give the phone back to your brother."

She handed the phone back to him.

Satoru listened patiently for several long seconds, and without another word, hung up. Rude.

Then, he teleported, and suddenly they were in a residential area. Outskirts of Tokyo, she would guess, a little run down. There was trash littering the sidewalk, lots of cracks along its surface. It hadn't seen repairs in quite a while.

It didn't seem unsafe, but it wasn't the nicest place to live. Maybe she was just spoiled.

It had an uncomfortable vibe in general.

Satoru was more alert now, something about him sharpening, paying attention.

This feeling, was it a curse?

Satoru wasted no time, breaking into a jog, head swiveling, hunting for something only he could see. He was prowling by the time he was halfway there, head low, leaning forward.

Definitely a curse. Poor thing wouldn't even know what hit it.

They reached the end of the street and rounded a corner. She'd been looking behind them, keeping a wary eye out despite Satoru having literal eyes in the back of his head, then Satoru's hand was covering her eyes before she could take in much more than the red dripping from the rooftop into bloody puddles, and the body, pierced through by something she didn't have time to identify. All the way through, from the bottom of their foot to their outstretched hand.

She didn't want to think or see that at all. Currently working on purging it from her mind, actually. Baby shark, baby shark, focus on something inane and let the lack of attention encourage her short-term memory erase the details of the sight, watering it down until it's- manageable, at least.

Satoru's body was tense, but he still strode forward, undoubtedly looking for details, clues that could let him hunt the damn thing down before it hurt another living being like that again.

That death was unnatural.

She'd never really understood what Yuji had meant when he said he wanted people to have proper deaths. Why proper, specifically? It was such an interesting word choice to her. What about death was ever proper?

This death wasn't proper. It wasn't something that should ever be able to happen in real life, nothing but the work of cursed spirits, snuffing out a life in the most horrific way they can manage. It was a horrible way for a living human to die, to something they might not even be able to see. All those years, being born, childhood, all the damn school they had to go through, the life they were living as an adult, erased by the whims of a curse.

Illness, old age, accidents, those were at least natural. Horrible, but natural.

This never should have happened.

Could she have caused this, by preventing Satoru from taking missions out of her own paranoia? It wasn't like she had even been attacked yet. Was that because no one was looking for her, or because Satoru was scaring them away? She hated the uncertainty of it all.

Satoru started walking forward, a bit slower and more wary, and she pulled away from his hand to press her face into his neck, eyes closed. He needed at least one hand free in case he needed to act quickly.

She didn't open her eyes until they'd long since left behind the smell of blood, and even then, she just stared at Satoru's neck, too afraid to look up again.

"Have you seen Todo yet?" She eventually whispered.

Satoru's voice was just as quiet, matching her volume as he whispered, "not yet. Some residuals I think, though I can't be sure it's him."

"Do you think he saw?"

"Maybe. The residuals were all over the… the road. I'd bet whoever it was probably found the body and started tracking the curse." Satoru mused slowly. Ugh, poor kid. That was a messed-up scene to see, and unlike her, he had no one to try and spare him the gory details.

"We've gotta hurry." She urged nervously. God, what if he was killed here? What if she'd changed something? Had he done this in canon? She knew he was strong, but this seemed out of his league.

Satoru teleported, between blinks they were suddenly completely down the street, and Satoru turned, following the residuals and he teleported again. It sped up the search immensely, until the houses faded away, the streets narrowing, until they reached the forest. There was a chain-link fence encircling it, and there was a keep-out sign every other post. One in particular listed the number of people who had gone missing upon entering the forest. The original number was eighteen, but the board had rows and rows of scratches someone had painstakingly carved into the metal of the sign.

Satoru teleported right past, not even bothering to climb over the fence.

It was eerie.

The whole forest was dead silent. Every step Satoru took was even silent too, the Infinity between him and the forest floor leaving his steps completely soundless. She was overly aware of her own breath, how loud it was in the absolute quiet.

Satoru was still searching, more tense now. His arm around her waist was verging on too tight, but she was clinging to him just as tightly, so fair was fair.

They reached the battle scene about thirty seconds after the sorcerer was defeated.

The sorcerer who'd hunted the curse down was drenched in blood, on the ground. A cursed spirit crouched in front of him, human shaped, probably grade one she'd imagine judging by the focus on its distorted face as it watched, its bulging eyes locked on the other cursed spirit across the clearing. Its gaping mouth was taking up about half of its face, hanging loosely, lined with fangs from top to bottom in rows and rows. It was strangely hard to see, a little faded, translucent. Odd. The enemy spirit was huge, and every bone it had was piercing its own skin, thick and sharpened. It had a human-ish face, a hulking body, its spine curled backwards, forcing its head backwards. To look at them it had to press its chest into the ground, digging the bone into the ground. The little clearing was pocketed with holes dug into the ground in a similar way.

Todo was on the other side of the clearing, locked on the enemy cursed spirit. He didn't look hurt, just a bit roughed up. As she watched, he clapped his hands to dodge a strike from the cursed spirit, a spike of bone erupting from the earth right where he had stood moments before.

"Worry about the spirit, I'll get Todo out of here." She called, scrambling down from his arms, and Satoru nodded. Already, there was Blue sparking up in his hands, and he ripped the cursed spirit away, sending it slamming through several trees.

"Todo!" She shouted, and when his sharp eyes flicked towards her, she scooped up a rock. It took a long second to drip a small amount of cursed energy into it, the slightest bit she managed to snag while it was so tightly bundled up in the seal and then she threw it as hard as she could in Todo's direction. The cursed energy that remained only wound itself tighter. It would definitely be harder to take a bit more again.

Getting teleported by Todo's cursed technique was far different from Satoru's teleportation. It was definitely a swap, not a teleport, the power difference was unreal. Todo's was quick, sharp, immensely disorienting.

She kicked a root and went down like a rock, of course. Probably scraped her hands too, judging by the spike of pain, but she bounced back to her feet quick enough.

"Satoru-nii has the cursed spirit handled, are you hurt, Aoi-san?" She asked firstly, keeping a wary eye on the cursed spirit crouched protectively in front of the injured sorcerer, now staring at them. Todo shook his head. She could almost see him squaring up to the curse, judging its power.

"Hi." She called to the cursed spirit. It said nothing, just stayed in place.

Well, it was clearly tame somehow.

She'd have to risk it, the dude was gonna bleed out.

"Aoi-san, if it's gonna attack me, can you get me out of there?" She asked without looking. Before she could doubt it, she walked up to the sorcerer. She went slowly of course, keeping her eyes on the ground. It let her pass without any aggression, somehow. Maybe she didn't register as an enemy sorcerer, given her current lack of cursed energy.

She didn't recognize the sorcerer, but he was bleeding badly from a hole in his abdomen, his skin pale from blood-loss.

First aid. She'd trained for this.

She didn't think introducing herself as trained in first aid would be quite as reassuring coming from a four-year-old. Also, he was unconscious, so it was unnecessary.

She stole the man's torn shirt, using it for a bandage and leaning her body weight down to put pressure on the wound. Considering it was a large hole, and she was a very small little girl, it didn't work much. At least the sunlight shining down meant she could see the details a little better, she had to carefully pick a little debris off first.

"I need you over here Aoi-san, if you can get past the spirit. I can't stop the bleeding like this."

He didn't even hesitate to walk over. The curse spirit was snarling viciously, but never actually striking out. Todo dropped next to her, taking a moment to examine the injury before joining her in pressing down hard on the injury site, working to staunch the bleeding.

It took another two minutes or so for Satoru to come back, and a good football sized chunk of the forest was gone, ripped up by his techniques as he whipped it about, never letting it close the distance on them until he'd charged up his purple. She got the feeling he just wanted to use it.

Satoru didn't bother to mince words, just slipped his arms under the downed man and vanished on the spot. Straight to Shoko, do not pass GO. Todo visibly started when Satoru vanished, examining the spot like it held the mysteries of the universe. He looked up, a cloud or something covering the sky as he did so, darkening the forest around them. The wind grew still.

Then, he looked at her.

She stared back.

Damn, making friends was kinda hard. She had to talk and everything.

"My name's Midori."

"Todo."

"Did you chase that thing?"

"Yes." He was preoccupied with the sky. She didn't feel like looking at him either, it was too awkward right now. Looking down just showed her the blood coating her hands though.

"Cool." She muttered, a bit awkwardly.

Ugh. Where was Satoru?

"Your technique is pretty cool." She offered.

"It's strong!" He snapped, looking down towards her for the first time. Touched a nerve apparently.

"It is. That'd be so handy in a fight! Can you swap places with just normal rocks or do they need a little cursed energy in them too?"

"Cursed energy."

"Could you swap with Satoru-nii if he was defending with his technique?"

"I don't know."

Alright, trying to get more than a few words out of him right now was clearly a lost cause. Fair, he'd just seen a dead body, watched an adult get hurt, and been attacked himself in a very short span of time. It wasn't exactly unexpected. She'd leave him alone for now after she explained a few things.

"Satoru-nii's gonna probably teleport both of us to Jujutsu Highschool, so that Ieiri Shoko, a student and an excellent doctor, can make sure we're both uninjured. Then, he'll probably have some explaining to do, and you'll probably have to make a statement or something, and he'll take you home. It shouldn't be too long." She explained reassuringly. The cursed spirit was wandering away now, even more faded, headed somewhere off into the distance. Todo was looking upwards still.

Todo nodded, pivoted on the spot, and started fucking walking away.

"Aoi-san, we need to wait for Satoru-nii, it might be dangerous!" She shouted, a bit panicked. He couldn't leave, what if he got hurt?

"Aoi-san!" Nothing.

"Todo, stop!" She finally shouted, and he turned to send a nasty look her way. He stopped walking though, which was good enough.

"Please don't leave me alone here. If you don't want to go, Satoru-nii won't force you. He's good about that, respecting a kid's right to make their own decisions."

He didn't move for a few seconds. Then, he turned and kept walking.

Now she was alone in the dark fucking forest. Great.

And she didn't even have any damn cursed energy.

Satoru wasn't gonna take too long, surely. It hadn't even been a minute or two at most-

Why was it so dark?

She'd originally thought that a cloud had covered the sun, but looking up, it was just dark for no visible reason.

Veil.

"Todo!" She shouted, a bit more panicked now, and she took off in the direction he had headed in.

She'd never had this little cursed energy before, it was like every speck was gone. She hated it.

"Todo?" She called again nervously. The forest was eerily silent, in a different way than before. Not a speck of wind blew, the trees were completely still. She was making the only sound in the forest, animals too smart to make a move at this point.

Finding Todo might not be an option anymore. She needed to find somewhere to hide. The veil wouldn't hold Satoru out for long, she just had to not get kidnapped or murdered until he did.

She didn't have any cursed energy right now. A curse, but maybe also a blessing? Even Satoru would likely have a hard time finding her right now. If she concealed her physical body well enough, she wouldn't need to worry about being tracked with cursed energy. There was no cursed energy to leave behind, no residuals to track.

Whoever had put up this veil would not have much time to hunt her down, if they even risked more than a minute or two of searching.

She turned, changing direction away from where Todo had gone. If she was the one being hunted, she couldn't get him involved, and if it was him that they were hunting, Satoru would most likely find Todo first. Hiding wouldn't hurt.

She hit a stream decently fast, carving a deep groove in the ground. It had an overhang, where the water had carved away but the roots of the tree had held the dirt in place. It was a good hiding spot, she'd be well hidden, but also reasonably conspicuous. Close by, overlooking the groove, a thick, thorny bush was also visible.

Bush it was. Better to have some deterrent.

She was small enough to worm her way under, though she didn't make it through without any bloody scratches as payment, the thorns catching on her heavy jacket. She needed a cloth or something, so she took one of her shoes off and used one of her socks to wipe any visible blood clean from the thorns, hopefully leaving no visible sign of her hiding place.

Now she had only one sock.

Life sucked.

She still put her foot back in her shoe and tied it, of course, it just felt icky.

Waiting was the worst part. To not rattle the bush at all, she had to lay flat, her head facing outwards and her legs curled around the trunk, the thorns lining it digging into her bare skin wherever the shorts didn't protect. Each breath was shallow, breathing too deeply would make her back brush against the lowest thorns, catching on the fabric of her shirt and making the rattle worse when it finally pulled free.

It didn't help her stay calm, breathing so shallowly, so she cupped her face with her hands, trying to muffle the sound.

Hiding was good. She was safe as long as she was hiding.

Footsteps. She froze, holding her breath instinctively, as she listened.

The pair of shoes that stopped along the bank were far too small to be an adult's.

Todo.

Should she call out to him? Let him pass? She didn't know. Could he fit under here with her without fucking up his back? He wasn't exactly a small kid, and older than her besides.

"Here." She finally called out softly when he moved to leave. He dropped down next to the bush quickly, leaning his head down to peer at her. He looked confused.

"I'm hiding. There's a veil, right?"

He nodded.

"I can't fight right now. It's safest for me to hide. If you can fit, you can hide with me."

"You got scared." He noted. Was that disappointment on his face? She was hardly a paragon of bravery; she was mature enough to know she was a very small fish in a huge ocean.

"There's a veil. That means there's a sorcerer. I don't like unfamiliar sorcerers, I have a bounty on my head." She explained simply.

He was completely on the ground now, face in the dirt to look at her. It looked wildly uncomfortable.

"You're hiding." He accused. Oh, there was no way he was going to get her out of her hiding place, he wasn't going to pep-talk her into fighting back. She wasn't Yuji, she wasn't brave like that, and she certainly didn't have his physical strength.

"I don't want to be kidnapped or murdered."

"So, you're going to cower and hide?"

"Yeah."

Clap.

She threw herself back towards the bush, but he caught her by the collar.

"Todo, I don't have any cursed energy right now, I can barely even see cursed spirits, so I can't reasonably be expec-," except he was dragging her with him now, not giving her the chance to argue.

"You cannot hide away from your problems, you must fight them head on!"

Oh god, she chose this. She chose to approach him, to try to make friends, and now he decided she needed a little bit of help.

She brought this entirely upon herself.

Damn.

"Todo, I'm not in good fighting shape right now, I cry at the drop of a hat, I panic like a chihuahua, I have the fighting skills of a baby, and let's not start on my muscles-"

"To back down from a fight is to tell all those around you that they too, may have what they want from you. To back down from a fight, even one you are likely to lose, will only ever prevent you from growing"

No, it really didn't work that way, see, she was four fucking years old, which meant backing down from a fight was completely reasonable. Todo might not believe it, but it really was.

She had to try and talk him down, he was way too strong for her to escape his iron grip on her collar, and he was carrying her like a misbehaving kitten. She wasn't willing to slip out of her shirt to get away. Even if she did, all he needed to do was clap and she'd be right back in front of him.

"Todo, there are certain people who are looking for me who will kill you without hesitation if you prevent them from getting to me. There's another guy who already killed a whole orphanage. There's even another guy who either wants my brain or my body, or something, and they all may or may not be the same people. They will hurt both of us without the slightest-"

There was a sorcerer on their left. She froze on the spot, and Todo's eyes followed hers to look at the man.

No stitches.

Normal idiot sorcerer.

Not Kenjaku.

Oh, she might just pass out from relief. Maybe then Todo would accept that her not wanting to fight had an actual reason. She was just a girl with both a panic and anxiety disorder.

Todo set her down, gesturing to the dumbstruck sorcerer man. She imagined that he usually didn't have his marks walk right up to him.

"I'm not fighting him."

"Land three hits and I will join you." He declared, and just- sat on the ground, his arms crossed impatiently. Oh god, he really was just like this, in general. It wasn't just a Yuji's brotherly aura thing.

At least he didn't ask for a black flash. He had some standards.

"Don't suppose you'd let me smack you a few times, for fairness's sake?" She asked the strange man hopefully. He just stared at her, then Todo.

"You wouldn't just watch me get kidnapped, right Todo?" She asked anxiously.

No response.

God, he probably would.

She needed her cursed energy right now.

The man just shrugged a little and stepped forward. She immediately took a step back.

There was no way in hell she was gonna try and fight this man in hand-to-hand combat. She'd be better off screaming for help and hoping a bear appeared and tried to eat the man. Undercooked chicken had a better chance at hurting him.

Still, she could only back up so far until Todo clapped his hands, sending her right back where she started again.

The man seemed relaxed now, like he'd realized that Todo really wasn't going to help her out. Between the two of them, Todo was absolutely the more physically intimidating, even if the man was rather short.

There were rocks at her feet.

She picked up the nearest one and hurled it at him. Missed by a fair margin, but still, he flinched back in surprise. Maybe a stick, get a little reach, but she didn't see anything on the ground, so instead she grabbed another rock.

This one bounced off his cheek, and the sorcerer stared back, unimpressed.

"One." Todo announced, sounding displeased.

She got one! She actually got one!

She might be a bit of a people pleaser, if scoring an imaginary point made her so happy.

The sorcerer didn't seem willing to let her get another hit, closing in on her too fast. He seized her arm, so she kicked at his legs instead, but he just lifted her upwards, holding her uncomfortably by her forearm.

Her other arm was free to rake her nails down his arm and she wrapped her legs around his arm, holding on tightly when he tried to shake her off. Unfortunately, that was when he used his free hand to rip her off and throw her hard into a tree.

First, something popped in her shoulder and she yelped when the pain and heat hit, immediately bringing tears to her eyes. It hurt to move, so she held it close to her body, trying to hold it steady. She got right to her feet at least, keeping her back against the tree. There was no way he would be getting any more of a height advantage on her.

He was looking irritably at his bloody arm. She'd got him good, at least.

"Two."

The sorcerer's gaze immediately switched to Todo. She could almost see the thought process in his mind. He was considering taking Todo out first, before they decided to work together. Todo stared back coolly, completely unphased by the adult who clearly intended to do him harm.

Something cold was building in her stomach, some of her cursed energy taking notice of her injury, most likely. It was slight right now, but better than nothing. The veil was getting to be actually visible, something was hammering on the northern side, sending visible ripples along the whole thing.

Satoru was on his way. What had it been, like ten minutes? She doubted it had been nearly as long as it felt. She'd be okay.

She tossed a rock his way, hoping for a lucky strike, but it went wide.

There was a split moment where he hesitated, glancing back towards her, and then back to Todo. He had a knife on his hip, his hand dropped to it. He wanted her alive, or else he'd have stabbed her a lot sooner instead of messing around, but he had no such qualms about Todo.

She pushed off the tree to accelerate faster, running towards him. He didn't look her way more than once, clearly figuring she wasn't a threat. Too bad she had a summon, and just enough cursed energy to use it.

Doomslug hit his face with a splat.

It surprised both of them, Doomslug wasn't expecting to get yeeted the moment she was summoned, the sorcerer not expecting to get hit in the face by a slug.

Did that count?

"Three." Todo sounded pleased.

The sorcerer slapped Doomslug down and -clap-, Todo was there, executing a flashy spinning kick to smack the sorcerer's leg out from underneath him.

She kicked the dude in the groin. Hard.

Todo even flinched a bit sympathetically, but there was a bit of new appreciation of her ruthlessness in his eyes.

"The knife!" She called when his hand stopped protectively covering his groin and started heading towards the knife. Todo snatched it quickly and eyed it.

"Terrible." He pronounced, and he slammed it down right through the sorcerer's shoulder. The man screamed, heaving Todo off of him and trying to scramble to his feet. One foot landed on Doomslug.

He was right back down again, and this time Todo had him in a chokehold.

Really, she might not have needed to freak out quite so badly. It seemed like maybe Gojo and Geto had more or less killed off or imprisoned all the actual good bounty hunters when they went for Riko.

There was a woman standing across the way, watching, with brown hair and a placid smile plastered on her face. She seemed to be amused almost, watching them. She met the woman's eyes, and immediately was drawn upwards.

Stitches.

Her hand landed on Todo's shoulder and she was dragging him backwards in an instant, away from the downed man and away from her. All her cursed energy came flooding back at once along with a wave of absolute terror. Her next exhale crystalized in the air, the warm fall air feeling boiling hot in her lungs.

Todo spotted the woman too, then, and she could see the wariness on his face. Strong. She was strong.

"No need to be afraid, child. You must be so confused, aren't you?" The woman assured her with a distressingly maternal grin. It was off, lacking something crucial, even though it looked perfectly earnest.

She blinked and the woman was there, right in front of them, and then Todo was hurled through the forest in a cacophony of noise. Something dark shimmered to life around her, a second veil slowly trapping her in. The woman's hand was on her shoulder, holding her in place, her feet sank into the earth down to her knees, she was pushed down, onto her back, being forced to bend backwards. She was on herback, Kenjaku was standing over her, looming over her. His- her- their hand was pressing down lightly on her chest, keeping her pinned with alarming strength. Kenjaku could cave in her chest in an instant in this position, crushing her sternum, drowning her in her own blood, but all he did was press, keeping her in place.

Already, Kenjaku was bending down to lift up her shirt- no, no, no, no,stop-

Clap.

She was out, standing shakily on the forest floor. Her legs were trembling like mad, there was frost dripping from her mouth, too much, too fast, it felt like she was drowning in it.

Todo's eyes were wide, meeting hers. His shirt was torn, the skin beneath it already reddening quickly, some of the skin torn. How he'd managed to clap and stop himself, she didn't know, but something had carved a path twice the length of a football field through the forest. That something could have easily been him.

"No shame in running when they're a minimum of ten times your strength. Big difference between choosing to bravely fight a lion and fighting the fucking elephant's paw."

Todo nodded. Reluctantly, but he nodded. God, he really did have like 50,000 IQ, apparently.

Thank God, and hallelujah.

She grabbed Todo's hand and started running. With her cursed energy, she was way faster than before, but by God, Todo was faster, nearly dragging her along. She ruled it as a height advantage.

The barrier was crackling and popping like popcorn now, barely holding on. They just needed to survive till then.

A hand grabbed her ankle and she was face down in the dirt in an instant. For a moment it felt like her food was being dragged down through the earth, and her cursed energy reacted.

An icicle impaled Kenjaku- was it Kenjaku actually, because there were four more of her running up from behind them, and the one her cursed energy had attacked was crumbling into clumps of dirt and stone and Todo was reaching up to clap again-

The barrier shattered to pieces. Not just neatly popped like a balloon, not like the anime, it just shattered. The pieces that fell evaporated, leaving spiderwebbed cracks along the remaining edges until all at once it lifted, whoever had created the veil letting it fade.

Checkmate.

The clones crumbled the instant the veil dropped, Kenjaku clearly giving up for now. It was a good thing too, well, definitely bad for her because she wanted Kenny caught, but then Satoru was there.

She'd never seen him quite so murderous. Todo took several steps back, away from her when Satoru's wild eyes fell on him, hands raised in surrender. Not getting involved, apparently.

"Nii-san, it was him- uh, her! Kenjaku! You need to find her, there's no way she's not nearby she was usi-"

Satoru was there, hands on her shoulders and then there were in the infirmary. He shoved her right to Suguru and vanished again, only to drop a struggling Todo off and vanish again. He was on a hunt apparently and leaving them with the babysitters.

She probably should be crying and panicking because she just came so close to getting kidnapped, experimented on, or whatever, but her brain was crystal clear. Things seemed slow almost, Suguru's voice was strange. Adrenaline, most likely.

Suguru carried her to a table, probably focusing on getting any injuries taken care of first. None of them could teleport like Satoru could. Rational.

Ieiri's hand was gentle as she rested it lightly on her cheek. The haze of false clarity lifted in an instant, adrenaline evaporating as Ieiri's cursed energy smoothed out every little bump and bruise. She felt like she should've ached, but all the pains the adrenaline was smothering were gone too.

"Kenjaku." She explained firstly, and Suguru's face went dark.

"Satoru's got him," He said instantly, reassuringly, "there's no way he escapes, not while Satoru's out for blood."

"She's got an earth technique. She can make clones. Probably cause earthquakes and sinkholes too, if she's the one who destroyed the orphanage." She explained robotically.

The orphanage. Kenjaku had destroyed the orphanage. Not exactly unexpected, but-

Kenjaku had let her go. He'd thought she'd be confused and lost.

Was the amnesia thing actually intended? Nothing like a scared kid who didn't know anything to win some hearts, so easily manipulated. Even she knew that admitting to the whole Isekai thing immediately would be a bad thing.

But.

She remembered other things instead. She wasn't meant to be the one in this body, not a twenty-two-year-old woman, but an amnesiac four-year-old. She wasn't here by Kenjaku's will, he hadn't called upon someone who knew the future. She was a wildcard to him, not that he knew that.

Why'd that make her feel a bit better, knowing she wasn't the product of him? Not entirely, at least. Her soul was still hers, even if her body was not.

She was sitting in Suguru's lap.

When did that happen?

He had his arms around her stomach, a backwards hug, leaning forward to rest his head on hers. It was comfortable, pleasantly warm despite how it felt like she was being caged in. There was still a twinge of discomfort at how his hands rested over the seal, a little urgent voice in the back of her head still begging her not to let them touch-

But she was fine. Suguru was safe. She knew that.

Todo was being unusually compliant with Ieiri, maybe intimidated by the stern look on her face. The new situation, completely out of his control probably helped with that, he didn't want to make enemies yet until he knew where the fuck he was.

"You alright, Todo?" She asked softly. Too softly, neither of them looked up.

"Midori-chan wants to know if you're okay, Todo-kun." Suguru echoed for her, the angel. Enough speech for the next hour, she was done for the time being.

"He'll be fine." Ieiri answered for Todo, eyes narrowed as she picked out a few more pieces of bark, then wiped away the visible dirt with a damp cloth.

She nodded. He was fine. Everything was fine.

She'd cry later. For now, she twisted herself around a little, so she was sitting sideways on Suguru's lap, his hands settling more comfortably on her side. The little bit of panic subsided quickly, and she got to rest her head against his chest.

She let her eyes close. It was de-stressing time.

Focus. Meditate even, if she could figure it out. She just went for a walk and daydreamed usually.

Sensory information.

Sight.

Nothing. Her eyes were closed.

Bad start. Try again.

Touch.

Suguru's hand was holding one of hers, which had apparently happened at some point while she wasn't paying attention. The skin was slightly calloused, she'd bet he liked to train with weapons on occasion. He probably moisturized too, he seemed like the type to take care of himself like that, regardless of gender norms. Because taking care of your own fucking skin was feminine, somehow. His thumb was rubbing gentle circles along her palm, it felt nice. Soothing.

She was safe here. She was.

She could feel every measured breath Suguru took, slow and steady. Too slow for her to match, she didn't have the lung capacity that he did, but it was stabilizing all the same.

Todo got snatched by Ieiri and sat down firmly on the table next to them, judging by the sounds. She could open her eyes to check, but she didn't feel like it yet. Suguru lowered her hand, setting it neatly in her lap in a comfortable position, and his arm didn't return, but Todo was tugged closer, one flailing arm bumping her as he struggled briefly. Either Suguru cowed or persuaded him into calming down or Ieiri did, because he stopped struggling quickly.

She should do something to reassure him. Maybe her hand? She didn't feel much like moving, but… Todo wasn't supposed to be uncomfortable. He was always confident, always moving forward, it felt wrong to leave him uncertain.

It took more effort than it should to hold out her hand, but after a few moments Todo took it. She could feel the awkwardness radiating from him.

"Suguru's good." She said simply. She wasn't sure she could force out much more than that, hopefully he wasn't offended by the lack of title. Except, her auto-translate dealt with that, right? It was when she actually tried that it came off weirdly, accented.

She felt alright. It wasn't quite as bad as before, when she couldn't move at all. She could force it if she needed, for now she was just… allowed to relax. It was nice to not be freaking out, at least for now. She'd have an awful night, she just knew it, but for now she was okay.

She was completely safe.

She missed when Satoru returned, only alerted by the way Suguru sat up straighter.

She didn't need to open her eyes to confirm what he was about to say. Suguru's disappointment was palpable.

There was only one reason he would come here first, not anywhere else. He knew better than to show the body to a pair of children, and he knew better than to leave it behind, not with that technique.

"She got away."

Yeah.

She figured.