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The river was rumored to have taken over two dozen lives.
The words from the file that was handed to her earlier rang in Utahime’s head. From the front page, she had realized that this was a case much bigger than anything she had worked on before, and she itched at the opportunity to prove herself and crawl up the sorcery ranks.
She had done thorough research beforehand, rereading the detailed report over and over again until she had it practically memorized. Multiple residents of a small, countryside village had mysteriously vanished over the past two weeks – the only feature shared in common among the cases being that each individual was last seen near a winding river. Her priority was to locate the missing victims and exorcise any curses that could be lingering in the area, taking special care to inspect and neutralize the river.
Taking into consideration the high body count, the curse was labeled to be at minimum Grade 1, so to prepare, Utahime had spent countless hours training her strength and cursed energy output. If she were to succeed in this mission, a promotion was sure to come her way, and Utahime was determined to snatch that new title.
Yes, her star pupil days never truly left her, despite how many times she told herself that she was no longer the naive little girl she used to be back in school. And for the most part, she wasn’t. She was obviously older now – stronger, wiser. Yet, it seemed that her strength and potential as a sorcerer were still limited, hence why she was sent with…supervision.
She told herself it was because the two buffoons behind her could use this as a learning lesson from their upperclassman, but, a small part of her recognized the disappointing truth: they were sent to watch her, seeing if she was capable of a promotion. After all, who better to judge the potential of a sorcerer than a special grade?
Or, to be more precise, two special grades.
“Are we there yet?”
Utahime exhaled sharply. Without turning her head, she responded in an annoyed voice. “No. You’ve asked this over ten times already.”
“Gosh, Utahime, can’t a boy ask a question?” he asked playfully, letting the words roll slowly off his tongue.
“You’re not asking a question, Gojo, you’re just trying to bother me,” she huffed, forcing herself to take a deep breath to calm herself down. “And it’s Utahime senpai. You should start using honorifics more often. They’re there for a reason…”
“Wow, you turned nineteen what…three days ago, and you’re already acting like a nagging mother…”
Utahime didn’t need to look very far to see Suguru Geto shake his head in mock disbelief.
“More like grandmother,” Gojo added, snickering just loud enough for her to hear. “I mean, who even uses stuff like senpai nowadays. Ooh, look at me ~ “ he teased, spinning around with his hands squishing his face. “Call me senpai ~ hehehe.”
“Quite indeed,” Geto added, his posture relaxed as he walked with his hands stuffed inside his pockets. “I believe that all these gestures are simply outdated – a way for elders to force those younger than them into obedience, despite not doing anything to earn that respect in the first place.”
Utahime rolled her eyes. Geto was always trying to make himself sound smarter than he actually was by using big words and long, complicated sentences. All that she could decipher from his ramble was that old people, her included obviously, force cool teenagers like them to be more polite just for the sake of it. She chose to ignore him.
She needed to focus on the mission: save the souls that the river (and whatever curse it was holding) consumed and move up the ranks. If she succeeded and maintained the pattern on future missions, she could even catch up to Mei Mei…
While she didn’t know much about her colleague (Mei Mei tended to keep her private life behind a locked safe), she had considered her as a precedent to follow. It was obvious Utahime was never going to be a special grade with her more simplistic cursed technique, but there was still a chance that she could end up one day ranking as a Grade 1. The thought of reaching up to her friend’s level excited her, and Utahime found herself walking with a new energy in her stride. However, it seemed her sudden boost in mood didn’t go unnoticed by the two teenagers behind her.
“Ooh, Utahime, did you see something cool?” Gojo teased, picking up his pace to catch up to her (not that he was very far to begin with). “You perked up like a little puppy seeing a bowl full of treats for the first time!”
“Will you stop talking…” she muttered, already knowing her request was going to fly over his head.
“Ah, maybe she saw her crush,” Geto said, letting out a snort. “I mean, she did get all giddy all of a sudden…”
Utahime felt her eyebrow twitch.
“Ooh, a crush ~ “ Gojo snickered, smiling way too mischievously for Utahime’s liking. “I didn’t know you were into all that stuff, Utahime senpai.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she turned her head sharply, silently cursing herself for falling for Gojo’s ragebait. But before she could completely go overboard and do something she’d regret, she forced herself to push down her frustration. “You know what, nevermind. If you two idiots want to think that I saw my “crush” then go ahead. Be my guests…”
“Oh my! She admits to it!” Gojo squealed, and Utahime swore if she turned around she would see him jumping up and down like a little girl. “I wonder who it is…Suguru, do you have any ideas?”
“Hmm..maybe it’s that one,” he said, pointing at some passerby in the distance. She couldn’t really tell what he looked like, but she didn’t want to make it seem like she actually listened and cared about their dumb conversation. “He seems her type, after all. Short, old…probably grumpy just like her.”
“Ah, I think you might be on to something! We should let him know then, shouldn’t we? I mean, who wouldn’t want to know that the very powerful upcoming sorceress Utahime has feelings for them!? Excuse me, sir, sir!?”
Utahime felt her heart drop to her chest as Gojo began waving to whatever poor – probably elderly – man happened to be unfortunately standing in their way.
“My senpai Utahime seems to have a crush on you!” he continued, talking at a hundred decibels. “And she really likes it when people use honorifics, so if you want her, make sure to call her – “
“WILL YOU CUT IT OUT!” she screamed, swatting Gojo's hand and slamming it down as hard as she could. She turned around, face red from embarrassment, as she prepared to apologize to the poor passerby. “I am so sorry…” she started, but it wasn’t until she heard the giggles of the two boys behind her did she realize she had been tricked. There was no one there. The figure she had confused for an old man happened to be a tiny, wilting tree.
“Oh my God –” Gojo exclaimed between laughs “ – you should have seen your face! You looked like a little strawberry!”
“She very much did,” Geto added, wiping a (probably fake) tear out of his eye. “She really thought her crush was standing right there!”
Utahime couldn’t do this anymore.
“You know what?! If you guys are going to act like jerks, then I can just do this by myself!” she huffed, turning around and stomping off ahead. She could still hear those two bullies snickering to themselves, but she didn’t care. If they thought that they could just spend the entire mission slacking off and making her feel like she was on an island stuck babysitting a thousand little toddlers, then they were sorely wrong. She’d go about this mission by herself.
“Utahime senpai!” she could hear Geto calling out to her, but she ignored him, instead closing her eyes and putting even more force into each step. She wasn’t going to fall for their tricks again. Fool her once, shame on them, but fool her twice? Ha, nice try.
She didn’t even notice the sudden change in the slope of the ground she was walking on until it was too late.
Her foot slipped against the grass, which had out of nowhere given way to a dense, thick mud. She felt herself fall backwards and she immediately shot out her arms, flinging them all over the place in an attempt to regain her balance. Before she could hit the ground, most likely staining her precious (and recently cleaned) hakama, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around her waist, catching her mid-fall. She tilted her head upwards to see Geto looking at her, his expression a mix of concern but also…
“A-are you okay?” he asked, trying his best to stifle a laugh. Embarrassed, Utahime pushed herself out of his grip, dusting off her pants.
“I’m fine,” she spit out, not bothering to look back at Gojo, who she was sure was probably doing just as well of a job as Geto was in keeping his laughter to himself. She instead turned to see what had caused her to fall, and her heart seemed to pound back to life as she made out a sprawling river flowing its way through the countryside.
“Oh my God, we made it!” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling as she jumped up and down in joy. She turned around to tell Gojo and Geto the news, now having fully recovered from her earlier display, but she was surprised to see the two of them talking quietly amongst each other.
For a second, she worried that they were just trying to mess with her again – or were just ignoring her to talk about something more interesting than some dumb mission. But from Gojo’s pissed off expression and their low voices, it seemed like something actually serious for once. She furrowed her eyebrows in concern, walking away from the river and towards the arguing teenagers.
“Is everything okay?”
At the sound of her voice, the two of them immediately perked back to normal.
“Of course!” Gojo said, smiling his signature smile. “We were just talking about how funny it was that you were so busy thinking about your crush that you literally almost fell head over heels for him into the river!”
“Okay, nevermind," she mumbled, rolling her eyes. Just them being stupid I guess. “We’re here, but it seems you two have already figured that out…” She walked back to the river, crouching down onto her knees – the two boys, one on each side of her, doing the same. She leaned forward, trying to detect any cursed energy, but she couldn’t sense any being emitted. It seemed like a normal river.
From their reflections through the water’s surface, she could see the two boys looking just as stumped as her. She wouldn’t admit it, but it was slightly satisfying to know they were all equally as confused.
“Okay team leader,” Gojo said, breaking the silence and turning his head to look at her. He wiggled his eyebrows, and Utahime had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at his childish antics. “Any ideas?”
She sighed, humming in thought. She didn’t want to admit it, but she wasn’t exactly sure what to do. Usually when she was assigned on missions, she was the younger one looking towards her more experienced colleagues for help. But now the roles were swapped, and she was the sorcerer in charge. She couldn’t just rely on Geto and Gojo for everything – both for her dignity, but also her sanity.
“Okay, well…” she started, tapping a finger on her chin. “We should probably inspect the river. I mean, I don’t know about you two, but I don’t really sense much cursed energy.” From the corresponding nods, she figured the two of them felt the same thing. Good. At least I know I’m on the right track. “I don’t want to dismiss the whole idea of there being a curse though. After all, we were sent here for a reason.”
“Do you want me to just dunk my head in there and see if I can find anything?” Gojo suggested.
“Gojo, what’s that going to do?”
Instead of responding, he gave a sly smile and pointed towards his eyes.
Oh, right.
With Gojo’s majestic and oh so amazing Six-Eyes (how could she forget the Gojo Heir’s precious cursed technique), she was certain he could find at least something amongst the waters. Realizing that they really didn’t have much of an option, she groaned in defeat, praying she wouldn’t regret her decision. “Fine.”
She ignored how Gojo’s demeanor seemed to light up almost immediately. He took off his sunglasses and practically flung them towards Utahime, who was barely able to catch them in time before they otherwise would have fallen into the water below. He dunked his head, not waiting for any further instruction, and Utahime couldn’t help but let out a snort at how silly he looked. His awkwardly long arms rested at his side as his neck bent comically forward into the river, and from the angle he was making she thought he resembled a lanky ostrich.
He lay in that position for a few, slow minutes, and as she waited beside Geto, hands impatiently tapping her knees, she began to wonder why he was taking so long.
He can’t…breathe underwater, can he? She bit her lip worriedly. She didn’t think Gojo would drown, but what if he saw something that spooked him and ended up accidentally gulping down water that would fill his lungs and prevent him from pushing himself back to safety? She suddenly remembered all those stories of people drowning right in front of their loved ones, who had no idea because drowning doesn’t always involve flailing arms and screams for help, but sometimes silent struggling. Like one minute they were under the water unable to get enough oxygen, and the next minute they’re dead. Their body laying still in the water, waiting for someone to realize what had just occurred right under their noses.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Geto also start to grow a little uneasy himself. Cautiously, she reached over to her right, tapping Gojo on his shoulder gently.
“Hey…is everything alright?”
Gojo suddenly came back up, shaking his head like a dog and spraying water all over Utahime.
“Ack – Gojo!” she exclaimed in disgust, pushing him away from her. “Disgusting! You’re such a jerk! And to think I was actually worried about you!”
“You were worried?” he asked, placing his hand on his chest. “Oh my, who would’ve thought!”
“Of course I was! You were under the water for so long that even Geto got concerned something might have happened! But like usual, you just wanted to mess with us!”
“I wasn’t trying to trick you,” he said, taking back his sunglasses and putting them back on. “It really was taking me that long to find something.”
Utahime paused. Is he being serious? If even the great Six-Eyed user couldn’t find anything then how was she supposed to?
“And did you?” Geto asked, tilting his head. “Find anything, I mean.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Nothing. Even with my six-eyes it seems like a normal river. Maybe all those people just drowned…”
“But that doesn’t make any sense…” Utahime muttered. “If all those people drowned, then wouldn’t they have found at least one of their bodies? Everyone went missing without a single trace!”
“Hmmm...” Geto hummed, getting up from where he was sitting. He stretched out his legs, dusting off any dirt from his pants. Gojo did the same, and offered Utahime a hand too, but she just got up by herself. “Maybe there is a curse out here, but it’s hiding.”
“What do you mean?” Utahime asked, her curiosity piquing.
“Think about it. Maybe the curse in the river only comes out at night. Or, maybe it can sense that we’re sorcerers, and thus is hiding out until we leave. Since it knows it obviously can’t win against two special grades. And a grade two.”
Utahime ignored the comment about her grade and instead turned her attention back towards the river. She knelt down, leaning her head forward until she could see her entire face and upper torso in the water’s reflection. It was plausible that a curse could be hiding from them, but even Gojo said he couldn’t sense anything, and nothing could be kept hidden from his cursed technique.
Unless the curse has some sort of way to disguise itself as something else? Would Gojo even be able to detect something like that?
She pondered about all the different possibilities, ranging from microscopic curses that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye to a curse-user that was using the river as a decoy. She didn’t even consider the possibility that the curse could actually not be inside the river but around it until she suddenly felt something push her from behind.
She let out a scream, closing her eyes as she fell head-first into the freezing water below.
“What the hell was that for?!” Gojo exclaimed, watching Geto retract his leg from where he had kicked Utahime.
“It’s to help you,” he responded, glaring at him. “You clearly don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Uhmm, I do know what I’m doing actually…” he angrily replied, walking closer until he was face to face with his friend. “There wasn’t any need to kick her into the river.”
“It’s not like there’s a curse in there anyways,” Geto mumbled, pulling out a silver orb from his pocket. “I haven’t released anything yet.”
“Okay, well you know what, don’t. Forget it. This whole thing was stupid.”
“Yeah, clearly…” Geto rolled his eyes, which for some reason pissed Gojo off.
If you didn’t like my plan you could have said something earlier…he thought bitterly. After all, we forged those papers together – you could have said something then.
Geto seemed to notice his friend’s expression and suddenly got defensive, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m honestly surprised you thought this was going to work in the first place…”
“Well, it was going to work until you got in the way! Seriously?! What was the point in catching her?”
“She was going to fall! Someone needed to catch her before she could injure herself and I’m sorry that you were too distracted to do it yourself! I don’t even know why you’re getting mad at me in the first place! This was your idea, remember? I tried to talk you out of it but nooo, ‘I’m Gojo, I'm the leader, I know what I’m doing!’” he huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You know what? Doesn’t matter. I kicked her into the river. Now go be a good underclassmen and save her. I’m sure she’ll be thankful.”
“Are you going to send out the curse?”
“Do you really want me to? You literally said five minutes ago to scrap everything.”
“I mean, we’re already in too deep,” Gojo said, running a hand through his hair. “How long is she going to buy that the river is haunted? We might as well release something. Just…do it once I get her out. So she can see us defeat it and then…I don’t know, is so grateful she didn’t drown that she accepts everything without question.” He leaned over the river bank, trying to determine Utahime’s position, but…
“What? Is something wrong?” Geto asked, walking over to where his friend was standing and wondering why he was hesitating.
“You don’t think the river’s actually cursed, do you?”
“No, why would it be? I mean, Utahime said it herself, there’s no cursed energy here.”
“Yeah, I know that. My six-eyes didn’t pick up anything either. But, if she was in the river, don’t you think we’d see her flailing around? I mean, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of her. Do you think something ate her?!” Gojo suddenly got worried, his eyes growing wide behind the rim of his shades.
Geto bit his tongue, looking around the bank. “I don’t think so. I mean, there doesn’t seem to be any blood. Maybe…maybe the river was deeper than we thought,” he too grew worried, furrowing his eyebrows. “I think you should hurry up and go find her, just in case she’s in trouble.”
Gojo nodded, taking a deep breath before throwing his sunglasses onto the grass and plunging into the river. Even though his eyes were closed, he used his cursed technique to search the river for any sign of his grumpy upperclassmen. The warm wave of cursed energy that he usually associated with Utahime seemingly didn’t exist in the river, which made absolutely no sense because he saw her fall in with his own two eyes. Yet, even after several go arounds, he couldn’t detect her. At all. Panicked, he kicked himself back up to the surface, pushing his head above the water.
“I can’t find her!” he spit out. “She’s not there! Do you think she got carried away by a riptide or something?! Does that even exist in rivers?!” He climbed out onto the bank, his clothes dripping wet and clinging uncomfortably tight to his skin. He really hated the material of his uniform – it felt like sandpaper compared to the soft fabrics he’d wear back in Kyoto, and now that they were wet it felt ten times worse.
He looked up to meet Geto, hoping that his friend would know what to do, but when he saw Suguru’s facial expression, he realized something was very wrong. Geto’s mouth was pressed into a thin line, his eyebrows angled downwards in…Gojo couldn’t pinpoint what exactly. Before he could ask what happened, Geto shook his head, tilting it to the right. Gojo’s gaze slowly followed his friend's movement, and more to his horror than relief, he recognized Utahime standing right behind where he was only a few minutes prior. His eyes widened as he took her in, his mouth opening and closing in what was either shock or guilt – he couldn't tell.
Utahime’s clothes and hair were soaking wet, and her face was tinted the prettiest shade of pink Gojo had ever seen. Yet he knew that the color was not from blush, or even embarrassment, but rather from pain. Utahime was crying.
“I can't believe you!” she screamed, clenching her fists at her sides. “You guys are such…such assholes! I knew it! I knew it was too good to be true when I got that mission –” she wiped a handful of tears from her eye with the back of her wrist “ – no one would ever actually be that stupid enough to…to believe in me for such a high-stakes mission! I should have known that from the start instead of clinging onto all that false hope!” She stormed off behind them, not bothering to hear their half-assed explanations, her boots squeaking with every step.
“Wait!” Gojo called out. He attempted to chase after her but his wet clothes only weighed him down, and he found himself falling straight to the ground, mud flying everywhere. He cursed himself for being an idiot, planting his face down into the grass.
Stupid stupid stupid!
He never should have gone through with such a horrible plan. Like always, he got so caught up in how everything would work out when he succeeded, that he failed to realize how much pain he could cause if something were to go wrong.
And based on the day’s events, it turned out to be a lot of pain.
Gojo had never meant to hurt Utahime’s feelings. In fact, the whole point of this scheme was so he could fight off a strong curse and impress her. After all, the two of them rarely went on missions together, with Gojo being sent off to fight more powerful curses while Utahime was saved as support for other, weaker sorcerers. He thought he could use this as an opportunity to show off his skills and have her realize that he was much more than just a spoiled brat, and someone worthy of her adoration.
But now, for once in his life, he didn’t know what to do. He was at a loss for words, and all he could think about was how he was the dumbest boy alive.
“Satoru…”
Gojo lifted his head to see Geto looking at him. He, too, seemed to be feeling guilt, and he sighed remorsefully, crouching down until he was at eye-level with his friend.
“We should apologize…” he continued. “What we did was wrong – “
“You think I don’t know that?!” Gojo interrupted, irritated, pushing himself up. “Clearly we fucked up. I fucked up.”
“Well, I still went along with it. And as your friend – and also Utahime senpai’s friend – I should have done something to stop it. We’re both at fault here.”
Gojo rubbed his eyes, realizing what he needed to do. Geto was right. At least partially. He should apologize to Utahime, but he was much more at fault than Geto was. It was his idea to go through with this whole fake mission; he was the one who used his family seals to mimic official paperwork, so he needed to be the one to go talk to her.
“You head back to the train station” he said, shaking off as much water from his clothes as he could. “I’m going to go try and find her. Shouldn’t be too hard with my six-eyes and all.”
“Wait, but…I want to apologize too. I mean, I did play along with everything.”
“You can apologize at the train station,” Gojo firmly replied. “After all, I’m the one who came up with this whole bullshit plan in the first place. I need to do this alone.”
The worst part about crying is that it’s so difficult to cover up. Dried tears leave behind faded marks and puffy eyes take forever to swell down. Combined with her soaking wet hair and muddied clothes, Utahime knew she looked a hot mess. She sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve. Clutching her hot drink, she hoped that she wasn’t getting the seat of the small coffee shop dirty. She would hate to have to make some poor janitor clean up after her own stupid mess.
She sighed, looking out the window at the Tokyo countryside. She didn’t even like sweet things very much, but as she brought the cup of coffee to her lips, she couldn’t help but enjoy all the vanilla, spices, and everything else floating around inside. The warm drink contrasted against the cold she was feeling from the February weather, and she savored every sip in silence.
It wouldn’t be long until one of those idiots found her. After all, even if the mission was fake, they’d still need to travel together. She secretly hoped that they decided to ditch her and head back to campus on their own, although she supposed it would only add more salt to her already stinging wound. Yet, the thought of having to sit with them on the train and listen to them talk about how stupid she was for believing that the higher ups had actually sent her on a mission brought upon a wave of nausea.
She’d rather personally give Sir Gakuganji a back massage.
She shivered at the thought of ever being in that unfortunate situation, and she decided to preoccupy her thoughts with something more…happy. She thought of cute kittens, the new Twilight book that was going to be released later this year, and where she was going to take Shoko for her Spring Break. She had formed a close attachment with the underclassman, designating herself to be her personal mentor (and default best friend), and as such, promised to spend spring break with her.
Maybe we could go to the beach? Or…if I save up enough money, maybe we can fly out somewhere far! Like Fukuoka…
The jingle of the cafe door opening shook her out of her thoughts. She turned her attention to the entrance, immediately scowling as she recognized the lanky, white-haired teenager that had just walked in. Like her, he was dripping wet, and she noted that he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses. Instead, his blue eyes were out and about, anxiously scanning the interior of the small coffee shop.
She considered ducking under the table and hiding, but she knew it was no use. She would be found eventually whether she liked it or not. She turned to look out the window, hoping that Gojo would see she didn’t want to talk to him and leave. Yet, she felt his eyes land on her and she shifted in her seat, silently cursing as she heard his footsteps get closer. From her peripheral vision, she saw him sit himself down in the seat opposite of hers. For a moment, there was only awkward silence: Gojo fidgeting with his fingers, tapping his foot nervously against the table, and Utahime ignoring him.
Like usual, though, Gojo could never read the room or keep his mouth shut for more than a minute.
“Hey….”
Utahime didn’t say anything. So many clouds out here today…
“Umm, Utahime ~ “ he waved his arm in front of her face. “Are you listening?”
“What?” she snapped, immediately regretting not holding out longer.
“Oh, good, you’re still alive. For a second I thought you might have inhaled too much water and drowned on dry land.”
“...”
Gojo cleared his throat awkwardly, and Utahime realized she had never seen him look so uncomfortable before. His trademark smile had been replaced with something much more strained, and his eyes were lacking their usual mischievous glint.
Serves him right…she thought bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I just...ummm” – he ran a hand through his hair – “I didn’t mean for this to happen, okay? I just wanted to help.”
Utahime blinked, trying to swallow Gojo’s words. What the fu -?
“Help?” she exclaimed, slightly cringing as her voice echoed louder than she had intended. She didn’t bother toning it down, though. “Help who? Me? Do you really think I’m so incompetent that the only way I could successfully do a mission on my own is if it was staged?”
“No, that’s-that’s not what I meant – “
“Oh really? I have a hard time believing that! You think you’re so high and mighty don’t you Satoru Gojo – all because you come from a super rich and old family and have a cursed technique that is leagues above everybody else’s! Well you know what? It’s clear that all that prestige and money didn’t give you a single ounce of humility because how can you sit there and say that this whole scheme was supposed to help me when all it did was make me feel even more insecure about my abilities than I already was! Gosh.” she covered her face with her hands, her body shaking as she let out a small sob. “You made me feel so stupid…”
Utahime cried quietly, not caring if Gojo was still sitting there watching her – she had already embarrassed herself in more ways than she could count, so what were a couple more tears going to do?
Crying was considered a form of weakness to jujutsu sorcerers. In a field where she or her colleagues could drop dead at any moment, Utahime – like many others – was expected to hold in her emotions and remain as composed as possible. But in the real world, sometimes in order to fully pull oneself up from the rock bottom, crying was necessary. With each sob, Utahime felt lighter and lighter, as if each tear falling off her face was carrying a piece of her frustration, and the more that fell, the more her mind cleared. Enough so that she was eventually able to pick-up Gojo’s presence again.
“I’m sorry, Utahime…”
The words came out so quietly that she almost didn’t hear them.
She lifted her head slowly to see Gojo sitting defeated. His shoulders were slumped forward, his head bent low in shame, until he raised his gaze to meet hers. She was surprised to see him so sad – she didn’t really think she had ever seen him be anything other than happy or bored before. He swallowed nervously, now fidgeting with the button on his jacket. She watched, waiting for him to continue.
“I was only trying to impress you. This entire plan wasn’t to make fun of you, or to even help you at all. It was all for me. I…I wanted to show you how strong I was. So, I chose a part of the countryside where not many people lived and created a fake story so it felt more believable. I asked Suguru to help me by coming along and releasing one of his more powerful curses. The plan was that I would defeat the curse single-handedly and you would…you would think I was cool.” He conveniently left out the part where he was hoping that she would start swooning for him after he saved her, deciding that that was a little too embarrassing to admit. “I didn’t mean for you to feel stupid. Or useless. That wasn’t my intention at all…and I’m so sorry for making you feel that way.”
Utahime let his apology sink in slowly. This was the most genuine she’d ever heard him.
He wanted me to think he was cool?
The thought seemed so strange to her. Gojo was certainly more powerful than she was; his technique flashier, more refined than hers could ever be. To an outsider, the answer to who was cooler was painfully obvious. Even she herself could admit that Gojo’s technique was incredibly amazing – mesmerizing almost, when he wasn’t bragging about it.
No one compared to him – even the strongest of sorcerers became insecure just by standing next to him, and Utahime was no stranger to that feeling. The power difference between them was infinite, and she wondered what could have possibly pushed him to create a fake mission just to seek out her approval. It’s not like she was some powerful higher up in the jujutsu world – she was just an up-and-coming sorcerer.
But it seemed that Gojo wasn’t really concerned about that. He wanted to impress her nonetheless, which to Utahime meant that he secretly did respect her, even despite the annoying teasing. It was the closest thing to a compliment she could get from him.
She unknowingly smiled. Turns out Gojo was kinda nice when he wasn’t being so annoying.
“Is that…is that a smile I see?”
She immediately shook herself out of her thoughts, narrowing her eyes. She wanted to scowl and tell him that she was still angry, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. His eyes were sparkling with hope, and unfortunately for her, his energy was contagious.
“You’re a real idiot, you know that?”
“Ehhhh, I know,” he said, waving his hands. “And I’m also stupid, annoying, an airhead, and unbelievably handsome too, huh?”
“Mhmmm, exactly”, Utahime nodded her head. “Wait! Except for that last one!”
“Too late, no takebacksies!” he joked, laughing as she kicked him lightly under the table. It felt good seeing her smile again after she looked so upset earlier, and Gojo prayed she didn’t notice how his face was starting to match hers in color. He cleared his throat, forcing himself to calm down before he said something stupid and ruined their delicate friendship. “Are we…are we cool then?”
Utahime sighed, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, we’re cool. Just…don’t pull stuff like this ever again.” She picked up her drink, which had cooled off by now, and looked around the cafe, furrowing her eyebrows. “Wait, where’s Geto?”
“Hmm? Oh, he’s outside,” Gojo said, practically jumping out of his seat. “I told him to wait at the train station but he insisted on coming with me. He wants to apologize to you too – I’ll go get him!”
Utahime watched him as he ran out of the coffee shop, and she wondered why Geto didn’t just come inside earlier so they could apologize together.
Boys are so weird, she clicked her tongue, shaking her head. Especially Gojo…
But for some reason, she didn’t have it in her heart to hate on him today. While his prank was cruel and completely unnecessary, his apologetic words were genuine, and she hoped she would see more of this side of him in the future. An honest Gojo – a kind Gojo – was someone she could trust, and maybe even one day learn to admire.
For now though, as she saw Gojo and Geto enter the cafe, the former glowing and the latter slumped forward embarrassed, she realized they each had a lot more growing up to do until she deemed them fully tolerable. But little steps were still steps, and if there was anything that today taught her, it was that they were both willing to own up to their mistakes and apologize when they messed up. And to her, that was a win.