The Waning (GojoHime) - Part 2

They Only Want One Thing

26th December 2017

For someone who "can't do anything", she had gotten a lot done today, Utahime thought with all the miffed indignation she could muster after working her ass off all day. It was still the holiday season, the indecisive time in between the old year that was not quite done and the new year that had not yet started, but, according to the people in charge, far more important than contemplating faulty decisions and mistakes made in the past was to continue acting as if nothing had happened.

Gakuganji had called her three times to request her presence at school for this charade. He had even made an appearance himself this morning, walking up and down the corridors at irregular intervals, thumping his cane on the wooden floors to mark his presence. Most of the students were here too, doing training sessions on the grounds, their haunted looks making the knot in Utahime's heart tighten even further.

You're not to talk about the incident, Gakuganji had instructed her with one rheumatic finger in the air. Or there will be consequences.

He even felt the need to threaten her? Her? One of the most harmless people ever to walk the halls of Kyoto Jujutsu High? It made no sense. Who exactly were they trying to fool? Themselves? Her students had been there too! They knew what had happened!

The non-sorcerer newspapers talked about a national disaster, an unexpected downburst that had destroyed parts of Tokyo and Kyoto, a very rare extreme weather event. Fair enough, they needed to explain damage without ever seeing the curses - she couldn't blame them much. Far more problematic were the lies spread by the sorcerer news channels: about how this "minor" incident was caused by a series of "rogue curses" acting on their own. Utahime had not been aware of the amount of control the ones in power had over the media. Why were they so reluctant to engage with the human tragedy that had caused this?

One of our own. Geto Suguru.

Maybe because even just mentioning him would force everyone to think about their own failings. Maybe it was the fear that one of them slipping into darkness meant others would follow? It was true, there was nothing, nothing at all to prevent others from going down the same path. The line between sanity and insanity was too thin, especially for Special Grade Sorcerers.

"It comes from having to control all that cursed energy," Shoko had once explained to Utahime. "Even if they don't necessarily realize it, their brains can never fully rest. It takes such a strain."

None of them were normal. Non sorcerers? They got therapy. That option did not exist for Sorcerers, because they could deal with everything themselves - were they not incredibly skilled individuals? Another foolish attempt at pretending everything was fine and nobody had any problems.

Speaking of thin lines and borderline insanity, still not a word about Gojo "Biggest Jackass Alive" Satoru, from no one. No, she wasn't worried about him of course. Not even when Gakuganji declared that he had to leave for Tokyo on urgent Council business and that he would leave her in "charge of school routines".

That urgent Council business was about Geto's missing body, It had to be.

The dirty shoes, the scraped fingers ...Gojo dug a grave with his bare hands... her throat constricting, Utahime concentrated on his insulting words so she wouldn't weep for him. Will they dig the body up as soon as he tells them where it is?

She buried her face in her hands. It was just terrible. Since Geto's role in their recent calamity was not spoken of just yet, Gojo's role need not be mentioned either. But someone sly had thought ahead of time: Of course it had to be Gojo who ended Geto and of course this would be exploited as soon as it became necessary. This will be used as proof that the Jujutsu Society is not falling apart, that everything is still in order. Gojo from one of the Big Three, ending the nobody from a non-Sorcerer family. They will use this to prove that Gojo Satoru is on the right side, that he killed with no hesitation to restore the order of things.