Don't Let Go, I Need You

~21~

When I woke up and finally recovered from my sickness, my dad was no longer in the room he nursed me in. I checked everywhere but there's no trace of him. It made me a bit sad because I've recovered and I wanted to spend some time with him, but now I can't do that because he's gone.

Sighing, I dropped on the mattress and laid flat on my side, staring off at the wall. "How could he just leave me unannounced? Isn't it better if he told me while I was awake? He left me again like he did 10 years ago..."

Then my eyes spotted a white note on the nightstand. "What's this?" I sat up and grabbed the note, reading it out loud, "I'm so sorry that I had to leave before you woke up. I didn't want to reveal myself if your friends were going to find you since you haven't contacted them due to your sickness. However, when the time is right, I will come and get you. Love: your father." Reading this made me a tiny bit upset because he's always running away when I have a chance to reconcile. I guess that's what he's good at doing—running away from me. "What a coward..." I crumpled the note and threw it somewhere in the room.

I headed to the bathroom to clean up, and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I noticed my white roots were sprouting black. "Huh? Am I seeing things? How am I growing black roots? For my whole life, I've only had white hair." My quick fingers rubbed my roots, feeling it to see if it was fake or not but indeed it was real. "What the heck?" I didn't believe this. This felt too surreal. "You know what? I'll figure this out later when I'm back on campus. I've been out for too long. My friends, especially Megumi misses me."

Once I finished cleaning myself up in the bathroom, I stepped out to the bedroom and encountered a flashing light shining in my eyes. "Ah, what the heck is that?" I squinted, trying to find the blinding light. That's when I found a dagger on the ground. "Huh? When did this get here? I never had one on me." I picked it up and examined the blade.

The shape of it was really odd since most daggers were usually straight or curved not zigzag.

"I know I didn't put it out there. I only had my scythe with me and that's it." However, I wasn't the only one in this room—my dad was too. Did he bring this to protect himself? But why would he need a weapon if his curse technique is powerful? He's leaving me with so many questions. It doesn't make any sense. "Even so," I clutched the handle tightly. "I should return this to him. He shouldn't be so careless about leaving his belongings with me. It's not easy for us to meet."

Before I left, I double checked if I had Sukuna's fingers on me and to my luck I did. I tucked the dagger in my jacket because I didn't want anyone to notice it, then I headed out to see my friends again. Luckily I had 1% on my phone and was able to call Ijichi to pick me up. It didn't take him long to find my location and take me home.

"How did the mission go?" Ijichi started a conversation in the car ride home.

Staring off at the scenery, I replied absentmindedly. "It was a pain in the ass... I wished the higher ups did better to secure some places for me to eat and sleep. I got sick and recovered since I could barely move." I didn't want to go into details because I couldn't expose my dad. That's my secret to keep.

"You made your friends very worried. I had Fushiguro constantly coming up to me every two hours to see if you have texted me," Ijichi chuckled to himself.

"That's not surprising after all I didn't contact anyone for days." I really hoped they were doing well. I bet once I drop off the fingers, Megumi will jump me and scold me for making him sick to his stomach like boy chill, I was on my deathbed too.

The ride back to school didn't take long as I quickly rushed inside another building on campus to drop off Sukuna's fingers.

It was a sacred place only certain sorcerers could enter in, and I was one of those certain sorcerers because of my mission. It's like a post office due to the fact that I had to hand it to someone for that person to tuck it away.

Walking my way out of the building, I hummed a small tune in my head as I was ready to meet my beloved friends. I had to tell them that I survived and taunt Sukuna for wishing my death. While I walked, I crossed paths with Gojo. This elated my heart because I know he was the one who also refused the given mission. He'll be so happy that I'm alive and well. The higher ups did have faith in me and I proved his overprotective nature wrong. Gojo doesn't need to act like that when he's the one who's training us to be stronger and less reliant on him too.

As I made my way to his moving figure, I found it odd how he hadn't noticed me. Usually, it took him less than a second to throw his head in my direction and grin. No one can't sneak up behind Gojo without his sixth eye detecting us. I didn't want to sneak surprise him either because god knows how he's going to handle the situation... His demeanor may turn 360 on me if he sensed my presence as a threat rather than his little niece.

"Uncle!!" I hollered, picking up the speed to greet him.

Gojo whipped his head but didn't radiate his playful and lively personality. Instead I was greeted with austere. "Kana, I don't feel your cursed energy." His sharpened words cut through me like a hero slicing their enemy in one hot blow.

"Huh? Wh-what do you mean?" Instead of running to him, I slowly walked over like a zombie. My head was filled with confusion because I know I'm alright. There's no way my cursed energy would suddenly disappear. There's no way. A few days ago I was fighting just fine. My cursed energy can't evaporate over the course of my sickness!

"You don't have any curse energy inside your body, Kana. It's gone like completely gone."

His daunting words threw me into a frenzy. I denied everything he spewed out. Shaking my head, I felt so lost yet infuriated. "No no no no no! I was just fine a couple of days ago! I brought back 2 fingers of Sukuna's! How was I able to fight off high ranked curses if I didn't have my cursed energy?!"

Gojo lifted up his blindfold to reveal one of his blue eyes to me as his voice simmered in the truth. "My sixth eye is telling me that. I can't sense anything from you, Kana. Also, you never had black roots either. What happened to you? Because your body doesn't emit the aura, but the blade tucked in your jacket does."

Once Gojo said that, I immediately patted the dagger I had on me. In the pit of my stomach, I had a bad feeling about this weapon. If Gojo can feel the dagger's cursed energy while he can't feel mine, there's no way I lived in that room without my cursed energy. The only person who was with me was my dad... Did he have something to do with my energy disappearing?

However, before I could even bring any more words out of my trembling mouth, a big gust of wind came blowing in our direction as Gojo shielded himself in front of me. I bet he now saw me as a helpless being—I'm the opposite of what Gojo is trying to build and teach to his students.

"Do you see that?" Gojo asked, pointing at...my dad who appeared out of nowhere, levitating in the air.

"I see my dad above the ground."

Gojo clicked his tongue. "So you can't see curses anymore...that's going to be a problem."

Then my dad loudly announced to the whole school as staff, teachers, and students were running out of the building to see what's going on. There was a big eerie smile on my dad's face. It had evil written all over it. "I am here to bring back my daughter, Ozaki Kana!"