phantom-writess

[phantom-writess]

ALYSM

CHAPTER FOUR - of a crepe and brief encounters

CHIYO walked around Tokyo, trying to figure out what she should eat. She has never been very picky, a result of her upbringing.

‘Maybe cold soba,’ Was a passing thought in her mind, ‘It’s far too warm out for anything hot.’

She didn’t want to simply sit down somewhere while trying to decide on what to eat for lunch so she was walking around aimlessly by any and all means. A street vendor was selling crepes, and Chiyo, as eagerly as she was capable of, walked over. The wait was short, and she smiled gratefully at the vendor as she paid.

‘500 yen for a crepe is a pretty good deal,’ The soft musing entered her mind, ‘I should really remember where this place is. Maybe I could bring Toge here.’

The pastry of the crepe was still warm, but the filling—ice cream, chocolate syrup with strawberries—was cold, as it should be. It soothed the heat that was beginning to build under her cardigan. Sweat was starting to bead beneath her collar, and if her palms were in a state that they often were, they would have stung from sweat entering cuts. She continued to walk around the city as she ate, enjoying her time off school grounds without any purpose now. Most often, whenever she left school grounds, it was to exorcize curses. ‘I don’t even know how long it has been since I was last off campus without an assignment,’ She thought, her inner voice held a bite of bitterness, as it often did. ‘You’d think that given my situation, they’d be more hesitant to send me on a mission. Maybe they really are trying to kill me,’ Her final thought was followed by a small scoff.

The contemplations of her own death were halted as she passed by a particularly long and dark alleyway, a feeling of dread filling her body. Her blood was ice and her limbs were frozen in motion. She couldn’t breathe as the sudden realization dusked upon her.

Someone had just died in that alley.

It was a feeling she hadn’t felt in years. A person’s heart stopping, their blood ceasing to move.

The feeling came far too quick to be natural. Even when a person went into cardiac arrest, there was still some activity in their other organs. But every organ in that body suddenly shut down. There was no way to resuscitate them after that, they were dead in every meaning of the word. No brain activity, no function in other organs. A cadaver.

The feeling of death and wrong left her body slowly, the grip loosening its grip on her body. “What… the hell was that,” Her words came out as a broken whisper, filled with deep breaths and gasps. She leaned against one of the walls that made up the alley, a hand pressed to her chest. “Of course something like this happens the first time in months I get to be off campus without dealing with a curse.” She sighed, before turning to begin walking back to school.

When Chiyo arrived at the grounds of Tokyo Jujutsu Technical School, she was surprised to see Todo, a third year student from the school in Kyoto, fighting Megumi. A sigh escaped her mouth, a quickly developing habit, before she began to quickly walk towards the pair. Todo’s movements halted as Chiyo used her technique, pain filling his abdomen.

“I’m surprised you still have your appendix, Todo.” Megumi’s wounds began to heal as she got closer. “I leave campus for a couple hours, and this is what happens?” Chiyo jokingly chastised her underclassman as she approached him, crouching down beside him to better evaluate his injuries.

‘Is this really her technique?’ Megumi stared at the older girl in thinly-veiled wonder, ‘I couldn’t even sense her cursed energy as she was coming.’

Todo began to move as the pain, evidently caused by his appendix, began to lessen. Chiyo held in a groan, she really didn’t want to be in a fight right now, especially one that she’d most likely have to use her technique in. The possibility was slim that she could win a fight against Todo without using her technique at all. Slim, but not zero.

As Chiyo rose to her feet, she pat Megumi on his head with a soft uttering of: “Stay here.” Before Chiyo could need to use her technique any more, Toge and Panda appeared behind him. Two words were all it took for relief to fill Chiyo’s body.

“Don’t move.”

Chiyo tuned out everything after that, only focusing on healing Megumi. She dug through her small backpack, which had an entire pocket filled with medical supplies. Retrieving a small towel, she gently dabbed away the blood that was previously flowing down his face. Now that she had a better look at the wounds, she was relieved. “It’s nothing too serious, you don’t even have to see Shoko-san for these.” What small remnants of his blood were left moved to close over the lacerations, forming a strong scab. She shifted away from him, a soft smile donning her face as her work was done. “Don’t pick at those, and be careful when washing your hair for the next few days.” Megumi was left in a state of awe as Chiyo left alongside her classmates. He could barely hear their chatter even though they weren’t that far away.

Chiyo grumbled as Panda and Toge, but mostly Toge, urged her to go see Shoko. “I barely used it, I don’t need to see Shoko-san!”

“Okaka.”

He was all but pushing her there at this point.

“You should really go see her everytime that you use your technique. Who knows what the potential drawbacks are?”

At Panda’s words, Chiyo bristled slightly as she shared a glance with Toge. “Panda, I’ve been using my technique since I was a kid. If there were any serious drawbacks, I’m pretty sure I would know about them by now.” Her words were confident, and Panda couldn’t argue with her logic. At some point, she gave up on fighting Toge, and kept walking to the infirmary.

[phantom-writess]

ALYSM

CHAPTER THREE - of interest and a short shared journey

TO Kugisaki Nobara, her upperclassman, Chiyo, was a mystery. She was sent on a mission separate from her other classmates and she returned from it last night, yet she only received healing this morning. Furthermore, she received healing a few hours ago, and yet showed no signs of serious fatigue. She felt cursed energy coming from her, but it felt so… condensed, in a way. It felt like she kept her cursed energy tightly wrapped around her, using it as a thicker, second skin.

“There are five second-year students,” Fushiguro stated, as he began to introduce the upperclassmen to Kugisaki. “The girl is Zenin-senpai. She’s the best of all the students at wielding cursed tools.”

“Sujiko,” Was the only word stated by the light-haired boy with the zipped up collar.

“That’s the cursed speech user, Inumaki-senpai. He can only speak in onigiri ingredients.”

“He’s a bit softer when Yuuta’s around though,” The soft muttering came from the large panda with a band around his left arm.

“That’s Panda-senpai.”

“Panda-senpai? That’s all?” Kugisaki grumbled, slightly frustrated at the lack of additional information.

“There are two others, Okkotsu-senpai and Chiyo-senpai, but Okkotsu-senpai, who’s the only one I can openly respect, is overseas right now, and Chiyo-senpai is still out for a mission.”

Kugisaki Nobara was given no other information on her other upperclassmen. Kugisaki was stuck trying to gain information by observing those around her, including the mysterious girl that had stolen her attention.

Chiyo was very pretty, definitely model material in Kugisaki’s opinion. She was breathtaking in a way that seemed so natural, like wearing make-up would either ruin her face or make her an unstoppable beauty. Her eyes were a light brown—really more a shade of orange than any shade of brown—the color of honey and chamomile tea. The soft dark circles under her eyes didn’t take away from how pretty she was, in a way it added to it. The fact that Kugisaki could see Chiyo’s dark circles proved that the near-masterpiece that was her face was completely natural without the amplification of make-up. It was hard to see them clearly from this distance, but there was a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheeks—a dusting of powdered brown sugar adding to her natural beauty.

Waves of russet fell slightly above her shoulders and the longest strands lightly grazed them. Her shoulders were soft, not particularly wide, but not the smallest Kugisaki had ever seen. Her exposed arms were toned and had several thin scars across them. None of the scars were exceptionally gruesome, simply little pale lines across her skin, some jagged, some perfectly straight. One caught her eye however, a thicker scar across the width of her right forearm.

She could barely see the scar, only one of the outermost edges was visible due to the way Chiyo’s arms were positioned, but it was obvious that the scar continued around the underside of her arm. The edges of the scar were jagged, showing that the skin was torn, and Kugisaki wondered what kind of weapon could have caused it.

She also wondered why her upperclassman was in such a hurry to put her glove on after it was taken off. She doubted that it was due to scarring, as Chiyo seemed fine showing the scars on her arms.

‘Maybe she’s insecure about something else on her hands? Or maybe it’s just her fashion sense?’ Kugisaki thought, and she briefly considered walking up to Chiyo and just asking why she wore gloves. Before her interest could take her any further, she was brought back to her task at hand, which was training for the Kyoto Goodwill Exchange Event.

At around 2 o’clock, Chiyo left the training field, and the Jujutsu Tech campus altogether, with Kugisaki. They left the campus for different reasons, as Kugisaki was leaving to get a new track suit so that she wouldn’t have to train in her uniform, and Chiyo was leaving to get lunch after Maki had asked her if she had eaten yet, and she was reminded that she hadn’t eaten since she got off her train the night before.

The silence as they walked was mundane, if not a bit awkward. Soft thumping from Chiyo’s boots hitting the ground and the breeze blowing through the leaves and grass were the soundtrack for their short shared journey. Chiyo began to think of potential conversation starters that weren’t absurdly lame, but the only thing she could think of was the weather.

“So, what’s your technique?” Kugisaki’s first question broke through the silence. Chiyo was mildly caught off guard for a moment before letting out a small chuckle.

“You get me alone, and that’s the first question you ask me?” A small amount of glee could be seen in Chiyo’s eyes as she gazed at her underclassman. “After staring at me for at least five minutes while I had my cardigan off, you don’t want to ask about the scars?” The aforementioned pink cardigan was folded over one of Chiyo’s arms.

Kugisaki huffed just the slightest bit, looking away from her. “I wanted to start with a normal question first.” Chiyo laughed again. She wouldn’t say so, but Chiyo was grateful that Kugisaki hadn’t asked about her scars yet.

“I can control blood and organs. That’s my technique,” Chiyo’s answer to her underclassman’s question came with a tone of slight harshness. No harshness was aimed at Kugisaki, no, the trace of anger seemed to be directed toward the words she was saying.

“Blood? And organs? Like hearts and kidneys and stuff?”

A heavy sigh fell from Chiyo’s mouth. “Among other things, yeah.” As the two girls approached one of the many torii gates that marked the entrances and exits to Jujutsu Tech, the elder of the two begrudgingly shrugged on her cardigan.

“Why did you put your cardigan on? It’s like thirty degrees out,” Kugisaki shot a deadpan look towards her upperclassman, who was quickly beginning to appear insane.

A sardonic chuckle flowed from her throat before she could stop it. “When a young girl walks around with so many scars on her arms, people tend to ask unnecessary questions and stare,” The words were bittersweet, the sweetness only coming through in an attempt to mask the flavor of black tea that dripped off her words. Her words were an oversteeped black tea with only two cubes of sugar added in hastily after the damage was already done, ruining the flavor of the tea altogether.

When the two girls finally came to Tokyo City, they exchanged numbers before going their separate ways. Chiyo left in search of a good lunch, and Kugisaki left to buy a cute tracksuit so that she could train in clothes other than her uniform.

[phantom-writess]

ALYSM

CHAPTER TWO - of devotion and affection

MEGUMI left her to join the others on the field shortly after their conversation ended. As she sat on the steps, different people came and sat by her, taking a short break from training to enjoy her company.

Toge was the first to sit down next to her after Megumi got up.

“Konbu,” Was Toge’s greeting, as it always was. She smiled softly at him, turning to face him as he sat down. Chiyo always gave Toge her full, undivided attention. It was hard for her not to. Ever since they met when they were first-years, she thought he was so pretty. In her mind, pretty wasn’t even adequate for him. He was ethereal, an angel descended from the heavens. The thought always left a bittersweet taste in her mouth that was more sweet than bitter—coffee with lots of sugar.

Chiyo scooched closer to him, reaching out to zip down his collar. Her smile grew; Chiyo always seemed slightly lovesick whenever she saw Toge’s whole face. Nobody could really tell, except for perhaps her brother, but she felt it inside her. The faint feeling of nausea mixed with weightlessness, completed by the urge for a smile, large and beaming, to take over her face.

She never expressed that urge though, her smile never growing far beyond her usual small smiles she sent her other classmates. Chiyo thought that she did a good job hiding her feelings about anything, especially how she felt towards Toge, but her classmates could tell how she felt. She always behaved differently around Toge, she was softer and more prone to listening to reason when it came to her health. She was fiercely protective of him in a way she wasn’t with the others. Chiyo cared for her classmates and underclassmen dearly, the ones who spent time with her knew that well.

Chiyo would die for those close to her, but she would live for Toge.

She wouldn’t hesitate to bleed until she had nothing left for the others, but she would survive for him. For him, she would relive the first awful fifteen years of her life before she met him. For him, she would fight the king of curses and win for the sole purpose of going home to him. For him, she would carve her heart out of her chest and give it to him, living only for him.

She wondered if her undying devotion showed in her eyes when she looked at him. He smiled at her, unyielding and happy and bright. Her eyes lit up the slightest bit when she saw him pull out a small notepad and red pen from his pocket. He had different pens for each person he spent time with, and he always used red for her, ever since she got him the notebook and pack of pens for his birthday last year.

‘How did your mission go?’

She tried to hide the annoyance on her face, but it was obvious enough that he laughed. Her heart felt lighter at the sound, and her entire mission felt worth it just for that laugh. “It went on for way too long,” she sighed, always hating these check-ups that she was sent to do. “It took me forever to find the cursed object because the campus was so damn big and the curse was so weak.”

Toge hummed in sympathy. Chiyo always complained after these types of assignments, especially because it seemed she was the only one who was ever sent on them, especially this school year.

‘What about the curse? How did the fight go?’

The concern was evident on his face. He knew that she had to see Shoko, but he wanted, no, needed, to know how bad her injuries were. He never told her, but he hated that she had to hurt herself to use her technique effectively in most fights.

Her smile dimmed at the memory. “It was a first-grade, nothing special, but I did get a bit more roughed up than usual,” She lightly scratched her cheek with a single gloved finger, a nervous tic of hers that she never quite got rid of. “But it was nothing I couldn’t handle, so don’t worry.”

He would always worry about her. Before he lifted his pen to write more, Chiyo started speaking again. “I did encounter a second-grade before I made my way back, though.”

“Takana?”

“Yeah, that's why I delayed my return for another day,” She looked up at the sky, noticing the sun was high above the horizon, and figured it must be around noon. She slipped the soft pink cardigan off her shoulders before folding it and placing it on the step next to her. Her arms were bare except for the gloves on her hands and the short sleeves of her t-shirt, exposing the light scars on her arms. “I figured while I was around, I’d deal with it before anyone else got hurt and someone else was dispatched. It took me half a day to find it, so I figured I would stay for another night. I didn’t want to deal with the people on the late runs of the train.”

‘Did you get hurt?’

“Not really, but I overestimated how strong it was, so I probably used more blood than was necessary. I think I cut deeper than I needed to.”

Toge stiffened at that. “Igura.”

Chiyo whipped her head back in his direction. “I’m fine, really!” She was mildly frantic, waving her gloved hands. "It was nothing too bad, Toge! I promise!" She didn’t fully understand why he was so worried, he had seen her with far worse injuries, but she didn’t want him to worry when he didn’t need to.

Toge softly grasped her left hand and carefully removed the black silk glove that covered it. Her palm was facing the sky, and he softly ran his thumb over the pale lines of the scars on her palm. Concern was evident on his face, from the small frown that his pretty lips were pulled into, to the knot in between his furrowed eyebrows. She realized he would always worry about her injuries, her pain, her.

The soft moment was cut short when Maki called out to him. “Toge! Stop talking to Chiyo and keep training!” Toge grumbled, and dropped Chiyo’s hand before zipping his collar back up. She quickly slipped her glove back on her hand, faintly aware of someone watching her.

[phantom-writess]

ALSYM

CHAPTER ONE - of a phone call and recovery

“HEY ChiChi.” The voice on the other end of the call dragged the ‘hey’ on for an amount of time unsuitable for how late it was.

“What do you want?” Sleep and annoyance were thick in her voice. “It’s too late for me to deal with whatever bullshit you have for me right now.”

An obnoxious gasp could be heard from the caller. “Chiyo! How rude of you to speak to your older brother in such a manner! And I was just seeing if your assignment went well.” Chiyo practically heard the fake pout in his voice as he said that.

“We’re not biologically related.” She reminded him, the words were automatic at this point and didn’t have any real bite anymore. “My assignment went fine, it was just a first-grade and then I dealt with a second-grade before I made my way back.”

“You’re going to see Ieiri when you wake up, right?” All comedic ignorance fell from his voice as genuine concern rose within it. He was always serious when it came to her health in any way, even injuries that she was more than used to.

As she usually did, she brushed his concern off with a dismissive tone in her voice. “Yeah yeah, I’ll go see her later. God knows I have enough scars, I don’t need anymore.”

His light chuckle was almost inaudible, but she still managed to hear it. “Goodnight Chiyo, sweet dreams.”

Her voice was soft as she spoke. “Goodnight, Nico.”

He hung up after that, and Chiyo fell asleep once more.

It was late in the morning when she woke up again, the sun annoyingly shining in her eyes. A groan of pain escaped her throat as she shifted in her bed, trying to gently stretch her very sore muscles. They screamed in pain, urging her to stop her movement mid-stretch. She sighed as she sat up against the will of her strained muscles. The walk to Shoko’s office was one of strain and barely muffled moans of pain.

When she arrived, Shoko scolded her for not coming to her office last night, but she quickly got to work healing the girl in front of her.

“Is Nico back yet?” Chiyo asked. Her voice was soft, but she tried not to put any real emotion into it. She felt like a little kid, asking when her older brother would be home.

Shoko shook her head, telling her that Nico was still out on assignment. Chiyo’s healing was done soon after that, and she left without a bit of pain in her body. She was tired, as everyone was after getting healed by Shoko, but she made her way around the campus of Jujutsu Tech. It felt good to walk without feeling the need to scream in pain.

She admired the sights around the campus, and kept her pace slow so that she could truly savor the landscape. Eventually, she ended up at the training grounds, and she was surprised to see that they were occupied not only by her classmates, but also by the first-year students. Though, she believed that there were three first-years, but there were only two on the field at the moment.

She slowly walked down the steps that led into the training grounds, the small, red crystal on a thin, silver chain around her neck swayed lightly as she walked. No one took notice of her until she was half way down, and the first to see her was Panda. He dropped Toge, who he was holding for some reason, and ran to her. Panda picked her up and swung her around.

“You’re back!”

Chiyo struggled to breathe for a moment. “Yeah, I’m back, Panda,” Her voice came out with a wheeze as she spoke, and she took as deep of a breath as she could before continuing to speak. “When did you three get back?”

“We got back yesterday,” Maki answered, her voice strong and clear as it always was. Panda had put his classmate down when Maki began to speak, but still stood close to the girl. “What about you?”

“I got back last night, but I just saw Shoko-san a little while ago.” Chiyo continued her descent down the stairs with Panda following close behind. Once she made it down the stairs, she sat down on one of the last few steps, next to Megumi.

“Hey Toge,” Her voice was sweet, honeyed with unspoken affection, a tone she only ever used when talking to him. He waved at her with a smile covered by his zipped-up collar, the crinkle of his eyes giving away his expression. “Morning Megumi,” was followed by a small wave to her seatmate.

“Morning Chiyo-senpai,” Megumi felt awkward referring to her by her first name, but that’s the only name she gives people, so he couldn’t call her anything else. “How was your mission?”

She was facing the field, watching the others train, but Chiyo glanced at Megumi from the corner of her eye before beginning to speak. “Nothing special, just a first-grade curse at the school I was sent to check on, and then a second-grade that I found out about before I decided to come back.”

“How bad were your injuries?” The slight bit of concern in his voice could barely be detected, but she found it anyway. Their conversations were always like this, straightforward and blunt, but still showed that they cared for one another.

“The usual, nothing to be concerned about. Shoko-san got me healed up as always.” Megumi had never seen Chiyo in battle, he’d never even really seen her use her technique, so he had no idea what the usual severity of her injuries was.

“Shouldn’t you be resting then? Shoko-san’s treatment is always exhausting.”

She waved off his concern. “It really wasn’t anything too major that it took so much energy. All my injuries were ones I’m used to,” She wasn’t completely lying to him, there was some truth to her words. Her injuries weren’t major for her, and the amount of energy used was one she had grown used to. If it were anyone else that needed the same amount of healing though, they’d most likely be asleep until tomorrow morning. “But I am still tired from it, and Shoko-san told me not to push myself, so I think I’ll sit out from training today.”

[phantom-writess]

ALYSM

PROLOGUE - of curses and pain

CURSES are formed by negative human emotions. Fear, anger, anxiety, depression. The concentration of these negative emotions cause curses to form.

And the world is full of curses.

Cursed objects, living curses. Even some people are cursed.

In a way, everyone is cursed. Cursed by responsibilities and expectations. Ordinary people cause hundreds of curses to be created without even knowing about it.

But perhaps none are more cursed than those who exorcize curses.

Jujutsu sorcerers.

The people who are tasked to fight curses for the sake of people who don’t even know that curses exist. Often chosen when they are teenagers to risk their lives to defend the blissfully ignorant.

Yes, there are few who are as cursed as jujutsu sorcerers.

This was the conclusion the girl came to as she waited for her train. Her hair the color of burnt caramel, flowed in the wind, and her honey eyes stared forward. She was dressed in a plain white t-shirt with a heavy, yellow cardigan thrown over it and a dark blue skirt that ended just below her knees.

If not for the white bandage taped to her cheek and the bandages wrapped around her hands and legs, she would blend in with the crowd perfectly. Though, her clothing also earned her a few stares, as the thick cardigan would be more appropriate in autumn or winter than the middle of July. But she paid them no mind, simply staring ahead, passing the time by taking note of the things she saw in her peripheral vision.

The young girl dressed in the uniform from a nearby middle school that stood seven feet away from her had a grade-four curse on her shoulder. It was most likely because of stress from school, due to the heavy-looking bag hanging off of her other shoulder, no doubt homework for her to complete during her summer break.

The old man that stood four feet away from her had a grade-three holding onto his back. She guessed that it was due to a combination of stress from family and work, because his phone in his right pants pocket was vibrating from another notification every minute. Even though he couldn’t see it, it was obvious that he could feel its weight, as he hunched over.

Silently, she re-opened one of the cuts in her right hand. The amount of blood that started to stain the white bandages was more than enough to deal with the low grade curses. The blood began to seemingly bubble out of the bandages as if it couldn’t soak into the formerly pristine gauze wraps, like bubbles of oil in water. It started to change shape, forming two needle-like structures. One was significantly bigger than the other, which was necessary, as a grade-three curse is much stronger than a grade-four.

The two curses were exorcized quickly. It was expected, as the two curses here were nothing compared to the grade-one and grade-two curses she had exorcized in the past seventy-two hours.

She sighed in relief as her train finally arrived. As she sunk into her seat, her body looked as if it melted. Though, some tension still remained. Since she could finally relax her formerly tense limbs, the pain from all she had endured over the past three days reared its ugly head. Every muscle in her body was sore from overuse, her concussed head throbbed, the bandaged cuts in her palms stung and she regretted exorcizing the two curses on the platform, and lastly, the unseen violet bruises on her back flared with pain as soon as it made contact with the cushioned seat. She cringed at the memory of how she got the bruises, along with the rest of her injuries.

Red dripped from her mouth as she slid down the wall she was thrown into. She coughed, blood coming up her throat with the same burn as battery acid. The itch in her throat was persistent, begging for her to continue coughing. She sat on the concrete below her, a small puddle of her sanguine fluid in front of her hunched over form.

The curse approached her, closing the distance between them with all the apprehension of a starving animal.

She didn’t have time to cough. She knew she didn’t have time left to regulate her breathing. She didn’t have time to reach for her phone to call for help, not that she would have if she could.

Her body acted on instinct- fight-or-flight had been activated. Adrenaline was pumping through her body, her adrenal gland working overtime because she willed it to. Her mind was in a haze, vaguely aware of what she was doing, but unaware of the pain she was causing herself. The blood had barely left from the cuts in her palms and thighs before it started to contort in the air.

It moved in the air, fluid and dangerous, a crimson serpent. It strangled, compressed, and suffocated the curse. It was beautiful in the most disturbing way. Absent-mindedly, she wished she wasn’t alone just so someone could bear witness to her creation, to this force that was wholly and undoubtedly her. Alas, she knew that if anyone were to see this, they would be concerned by the vast amount of blood needed to create such a monstrosity.

The curse didn’t last much longer after that. Even though first-grade curses are quite formidable for most sorcerers, any curse regardless of grade couldn’t survive her if she was provided with enough blood.

Of course, controlling so much blood takes a lot of cursed energy, despite her extensive training in her cursed technique, and there was always concern over the source of blood. Most times she just uses her own blood, but a person can only lose so much blood before they are unable to continue on. However, she disliked using the blood of her comrades, especially if it was a grave injury. Oftentimes, she would instead force the blood to coagulate over the wound, forming a premature, very dense scab.

As the late day bled into the early night and the sun began to set, she knew that she was approaching her final destination. The train ride from Okayama to Tokyo took a bit longer than three hours, and it was around 3:30 in the afternoon when her train arrived, and her train was expected to enter Tokyo Station shortly before seven o’clock in the evening, in July, the sun would begin to set shortly before seven o’clock as well. Just as she thought, her train began to slow as it entered Tokyo Station.

When she left the station, it was beginning to get dark, the last traces of sunlight leaving the sky as it disappeared below the horizon. She had stayed in the station for a few minutes to buy a drink and snack before starting her trek back to Tokyo Jujutsu Technical School. She could have called Ijichi to pick her up, and perhaps that would have been the smartest decision considering her injuries, but she preferred to travel back on her own, unless she was with another person.

The journey back always allowed her to clear her head, analyze what she could do differently in her battles. At times, she wished she wasn’t sent on so many solo assignments, just so someone could critique her. She used to have someone like that, an observer that would give her advice as she trained and when she would fight low grade curses. For a brief moment, short memories flashed through her mind of a young girl with long, choppy brown hair and honey eyes, and a boy, older than the girl, but still young, with gray hair like faded starlight and red eyes the color of the substance staining the ground around the two of them.

The memory faded from her head as quickly as it came. She sighed lightly, making her way up the curving road that led up to the campus of Jujutsu Tech. She all but collapsed when she finally made it to her dorm, her exhausted body telling her responsible brain that she would see Shoko-san whenever she woke up in the morning. It was not even nine o’clock when the girl fell asleep.

Her phone rang at 12:48 in the morning, and she groaned as she picked it up, already knowing who the caller was.

“Hey ChiChi.”

[phantom-writess]

MASTERPOST

inbox status : OPEN

link to my AO3!!

about me!!

♧ - use he/it pronouns

♧ - write whenever i'm bored in class

♧ - always have chapters prepared

♧ - trying to make a nice layout

tags!!

♧ - phantom.txt : just me talkin' :)

♧ - announce.txt : important announcement

♧ - master.txt : masterposts & masterlists

♧ - write.txt : my writing

update schedule!!

♧ - ALYSM [jjk] : every saturday

masterlist!!

♧ - nothing yet!!