DARK RED [ITADORI Y.]

―V. HEARTBEAT

CHAPTER V. HEARTBEAT

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I felt myself beginning to wake up. I felt a light heat surrounding me, and the smell of paraffin wax circulated through the room. I opened my eyes, the blurriness in my vision dying out as I blinked a few times. I raised my head, startled by the figure sitting across from me.

The room was lit by candles on the ground and floating in the air, making it dim and yellowish. There were all kinds of slips of papers and ropes around the room, written across in black ink. The first thing I noticed when I tried to move, was that I couldn't. Not even a little.

My knees were touching the hardened floor, metal straps pinning my legs to the ground. There was one around each of my calves, and one on each of my ankles. My arms were bound behind me and pulled taut by a rope connected across the room behind me to the wall. My neck ached from having my head hung for so long, and my knees hurt from being on the ground.

A man I'd never seen before sat in a wooden chair in front of me. One of his legs was crossed over the other, and one arm was draped over the back. He seemed relaxed, which put me a little more at ease.

"Good afternoon," He greeted.

"Where am I? Where are my friends?" I immediately demanded. "Why are you doing this? Who even are you? What--"

"Relax," He said, holding a hand up. "I'm sorry you're all strapped up like this, but this is the procedure. My name is Yaga Masamichi, and I'm the Principal of the students here at Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical School. Here, we teach our students the basics of exorcising curses and cursed spirits."

I swallowed hard. I'd heard about this school up in the mountains, but I didn't think it actually existed. No one did. It was just like one of those tales, y'know?

"Yesterday, we received a message about a curse roaming in your neighborhood. As procedure calls, we sent our students out to exorcise it. However, we didn't expect you and your friends to be there," He said. "And on that day, your heart stopped, and you were dead."

I scoffed. "If my heart stopped and I was dead, how am I still here?" I rolled my eyes. "The magic forces of evil?"

Yaga didn't seem very happy with my sarcastic remark as his lips turned into a slight frown. "If I were in your position, L/n-chan, I'd be much more serious about this. Returning from the dead classifies you as a Special-Grade Vengeful Curse. And as sorcerers, it's our job to exorcise curses."

I caught onto what he was saying, making my heart sink a little. I swallowed hard, shifting around in what little space that I could. 

"I never hurt anyone," I said, my voice wavering a little. 

"I can disagree to that," Another voice rose in the room, making me jump. My gaze shot towards the door. Leaning against the wall, Gojo, as I remember, stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a pair of black sunglasses now, and I could still see the faint red line traveling from under his nose. 

"That was a reflex," I shot back quickly, looking to Yaga. "He touched the hem of my skirt. There's all kinds of perverts out there and I'm just a teenage girl and you know how people prey on little girls so what I did was truly justified--"

"The point is not that," Yaga cut me off, raising his hand up. "Let me explain something to you, L/n-chan. This is Gojo Satoru, and his fighting technique allows him to create a...barrier around himself. This means that nothing can get near nor touch him. When he arrived on the scene this barrier was activated. And there's not a single soul who can break this barrier."

"Then how did I give him a bloody nose? Did he---oh," I said, catching onto his words. I felt my eyes widen. "Oh."

"Very much, 'oh'," Gojo said, walking forward. "How the hell did you--"

"Satoru," Yaga said, stopping him from getting any closer from me. "Calm down. L/n's proven to me that she isn't familiar with any of these kind of things. For now, we'll keep her on the down-low. This is not to be reported back to the higher-ups."

"Then what do we do with her?" He asked, as if I wasn't just sitting here. "Leave her here?"

"Hey!" I said, making them both look at me. "You can't just leave me tied up! I-I'll call the freakin' police! This is kidnapping! A-And where are my friends?!"

"We can't leave her tied up," Yaga said. "Release her, Satoru. But don't let her leave the school. You can take her to her friends for now. I want to keep an eye on this girl."

With a wave of Gojo's hand, all the bonds encasing my body fell to the ground with a clatter. The moment they did, I was already out of the door. I heard my name be yelled, but I ignored it. They were a bunch of idiots if they thought I was just gonna sit here and let them do this! 

When I burst through a set of doors, I winced at the light shining from outside. I heard my name by two familiar voices, and soon enough, Yuki and Oyama were at my sides. I smiled when I saw them. 

"What's going on?" Yuki asked, flipping her jacket over her shoulders. 

"We're booking it!" I replied. 

"Obvisouly!" Oyama said, glancing over her shoulder. "Shit! Y/n!"

"Hey! Guys, stop!" 

I turned, watching the boy with the red shoes slide around the corner to chase after us. His classmates followed, but he was leaving them in the dust; he was a lot faster than they were. And he was quickly catching up. 

I pushed Yuki and Oyama to opposite sides, spacing us out. We all exchanged a knowing glance. 

Suddenly, it was like we weren't running away from people we didn't know and into a forest. We were running on the track. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, glancing to the side to see Yuki and Oyama jumping over the fallen longs like they were hurdles. I looked down the straight path cut through the forest, then looked back at the boy following me. 

I watched as he reached out. His fingers brushed my back, but he didn't grab me. No, he couldn't. I jumped onto the fallen log, jumping off of it to avoid landing in the mud pile. I slid a little on the other side, but quickly regained my traction. I looked over my shoulder to see the boy yelp out in surprise as he tried to jump after me, only to land in the pile of mud. 

I laughed and faced forward, catching back up with Oyama and Yuki. 

We were getting the hell out of here while we could.

[Chapter V. End]
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