negativity || gojo satoru

chapter 5 - tired

a/n : heya! schools starting back up for me soon, so im sorry if updates are a bit slower! anyways, enjoy!

Gojo hummed happily as he gently closed the door to his room, immediately flopping down on his bed. I wanna sleep... But he couldn't, as he remembered that sitting in his dormant scroll on the table, was a task assigned to him as a part of his partnership with Ozpin. Slowly dragging himself off the bed, he searched for the mission details that Ozpin sent him.

His eyes skimmed over the details briefly, scrolling down to a map with a location. Best I get this over and done with. He vaguely recognized where it was, it was near his last brush with the Grimm. Gojo's mission was to investigate, and if necessary, remove the cluster of Grimm that had gathered there. It should be simple, really.

But when were things ever simple?

Leaving his room with only his scroll in the pockets of his sorcerer uniform, he locked the door as he made his way to the elevator. Considering Beacon was on the border of the Forever Fall Forest (what he learned to be the name of where he had arrived in this world), it was a short journey to the edge between the school and woodland.

He dashed through the forest, blood red leaves left in his trail being carried by the wind. He had no time to admire the scenery, as he homed in on a Grimm, sending it a punch that emitted a shockwave. Continuing on his path, he took out his scroll to check his location. Gojo was nearly arriving at where the supposed cluster would be, he could even slightly feel their presence.

"Good, good... such power and loyalty..."

He came to a halt at the sound of a voice, head whipping towards it. Peeking between trees, he maintained his distance from the unknown individual and the large mass of Grimm surrounding them whilst taking in the surprising sight.

The person was interacting with the Grimm. He stroked the Griffon as if it were a domestic animal, a pet, and it just let him. Weren't they hostile creatures? Further observing it, he saw that it also had a metal limb, although it was only one of it's legs.

Should I intervene?

If he were to interfere, he would blow his cover. He concluded that it'd be best to continue observing, seeing as they still hadn't realized he was there. Slowly and silently, he sneaked out his scroll to capture an image.

"...master will be happy when he sees the progress I've made!"

They held their hand out towards the Griffon, vials tightly held in their other. The Grimm responded, placing their one mutated leg up.

"Here, my dear creation, we'll see how this one goes..."

He couldn't identify the colour of the vial under the darkness of night, but he could tell it was being slipped into the Grimm's artificial limb. Imagining all the possibilities, he wondered what it would do- having read more on this world, he suspected it to be dust, so was it an attack of some sort?

Something was coming.

He turned towards the presence of another Grimm coming forward, using it's momentum against it by sending a cursed energy reinforced punch, sending it flying, crashing into the trunk of another tree. Youch. But he forgot the scene at hand. Turning back towards where the person was before, they weren't there. They were on the move.

And so were the many surrounding Grimm.

"Yo! What's your name?"

Gojo chased after the unknown individual, fighting his way through the Grimm effectively as they began disintegrating. The person looked back, face hidden by a cloak, but he could hear teeth gritting as they noticed how close Gojo was to getting to them.

"Project 24, ACTIVATE!"

He could feel it, a Grimm gaining speed towards him. It was the same one as before. The one with the dust-

BOOM.

It was launched at a speed that erupted a shockwave, the earth beneath it being torn as it travelled. The waves of fire that spread were rather bright, accompanied by the large explosion, rendering Gojo unable to continue tracking down the anonymous Grimm wielder.

So here he was, left in a clearing full of Grimm, him being in the center.

"What an audience. Unfortunately, no one would know if I showed off..."

He paused, taking out his scroll casually amid the Grimm to check the amount that had gathered. They attempted to attack him, but to no avail, they could not reach him, whereas Gojo simply kicked or punched them out of existence. There were many, and there were more red dots appearing, indicating that there may have been more that were attracted by the sound and light.

He resorted to killing as many as he could, starting with those surrounding him. Sparing most of his cursed energy, he used only blows to destroy them, although of course they were reinforced with cursed energy, however it did not expend as much as him using his abilities would.

Punch to the right, duck, kick to the left, punch to the front, punch to the left, check on scroll... Just as planned. More had gathered, they were all charging themselves at him, hoping to land a hit. All the red dots had gathered at him now.

How fun.

--

Ozpin stared at the screens in front of him, observing the growing flashing red dots that had all crammed into one singular area.

"Must be the work of that man..."

He mumbled, sighing as he sipped from his mug. Clearly, Satoru was up to something. What his intentions were, well, he didn't know. What trouble was he getting into now?

--

A wave of mutated Grimm came rushing in, as they attacked relentlessly with more strength and ferocity, however it of course couldn't touch him, but something about their aura and presence... was odd. His blindfold was still on, as he continued fighting against the mutated Grimm. Gojo's moves were getting ever so slightly slower, and he had no possible explanation for why. I feel tired, that's not normal... He couldn't remember the last time he had gotten tired. It was just like the last time he had an encounter with them. Whipping off his blindfold to maximize efficiency and observe what was happening, he saw his cursed energy leaking out. His eyes widened in surprise, as he felt shock and for the first time in quite a while-

Concern.

For himself.

Now, usually he had a strong control over his cursed energy, so why was it so easily leaving him- Wait. Following the trail, he realized that it was collecting in the mutated Grimm. They were siphoning the negativity from him, absorbing more and more greedily. As he was distracted, he was caught off guard as his Infinity dropped momentarily the Grimm taking more cursed energy from him, leaving an opening for a mutated Beowolf behind him to land a swipe of it's claws. Gojo hissed in pain, being brought back to reality. Had it already drained that much, or was it his lack of attention? Well, either way, it's a bad thing. Time to wrap things up. He had planned on drawing in more of the Grimm, but considering his current condition and his profusely bleeding back, it was best to do it now.

He flew upwards, above the many Grimm, knocking down any capable of flight that approached him.

"Jutsushiki Hanten, Aka."

He flung the swirling ball of crimson to the Grimm, and immediately chaos ensued. The Grimm had all been blown away and disintegrated at the impact from either his technique or their landing. Once the dust had cleared, he observed and ensured that a majority were wiped out, he was happy to find that nothing remained in the vicinity of his ability. Of course, that also meant the trees. Oops.

He swiftly teleported back to his room, instantly applying his Reverse Cursed Technique to heal his wound. The claw marks that had once shown now faded away as it healed, not a single sign showing of injury. The problem was his uniform had been damaged. I might have to find something to replace my beloved sorcerer uniform temporarily...

He flopped down on his bed, exhausted. Not bothering to change, he slowly fell asleep. The mission report could wait until tomorrow. I nearly forgot how it felt to be tired, being his last thoughts before falling into the endless, comforting void of dreamless sleep.