Into Infinity | Satoru Gojo x Female Reader

Chapter 20

You stay in your room until late in the afternoon. The whole time you don't move from your position on the floor; your knees remain tucked close to your chest even when your back starts screaming at you. Luckily, your racing thoughts kept you up through the night, but now you don't know what to do with yourself. You're not ready to face Nobara. Not after what happened. You don't even feel like you deserve to see the others. What if this urge takes you over again? If you succeed in purifying one of their hearts, they will end up just like that lady in the village. You definitely don't want that to happen.

Your phone lies on the floor next to you, buzzing relentlessly. You can see the texts coming in from Gojo, but for some reason, you can't bring yourself to answer them. You close your eyes, but even now sleep doesn't come.

Eventually, there is a soft knock on your door.

"Hey, you okay?" A voice says from the other side.

You sigh. "Yeah, come in."

After a moment of hesitation, the door opens.

You notice the difference in Megumi's heart immediately. The red core that was invisible before now glows in the center of his chest. It is small and hidden within the vibrant purple energy of his heart, but it is there.

You turn your eyes away.

Megumi steps in and knocks into the chair you put there last night to keep yourself from escaping. "Ow, what the heck?"

"Sorry, I should've warned you about that."

"You?" He looks around the room awkwardly. "Kugisaki told me what happened."

"Oh..." You hug your knees tighter. "How is she?"

"Loud, as usual. Except she's worried about you."

"Worried about me? Why? I'm the one that..."

"You're making it seem way worse than it is." Megumi looks at you and sighs. "You won't do yourself any good by staying like that. Come on, get up. You'll feel better if you get some fresh air."

Now you can't help looking at him. The red light; the core of his essence, is so close. The thought of reaching out and touching it is there, but it's subtle; nowhere near as strong as it was in the dream. Maybe this will be okay.

"Okay, fine," you say. Your bones crack as you stand up. He's right, sitting like that for hours was probably not good for the future of your knees.

You smile as you look across the room at Megumi, who stands there with an obvious look of concern on his face. "You know, you're a sweetheart," you say.

Megumi cringes. "That was a fast recovery."

"Your concern rejuvenates me, Gum-Gum."

"I'm starting to regret my decision to check up on you."

***

You and Megumi walk down to the river and take a seat by the water. At this point, you can see little fish swimming about through the ripples of the water. The red life core radiates from each of them. Again, the urge tugs at you lightly, but it's nothing stronger than the urge to touch a pretty flower. You watch the little red stream go by, mesmerized. After a while, you sit back and turn your eyes to the sky.

"Aren't you going to ask me why I did it?" you say.

Megumi temporarily abandons his staring contest with a rock. "I thought that was obvious," he says.

"Obvious..." You look at your hands; these hands that are proving to be more capable than you believed at the start of your existence. "Is it?"

Megumi watches you wallowing in your pity. "You know, when I first met Gojo-sensei, I didn't know anything about the jujutsu world," he says. "Curses, sorcery, it all seemed like more of the same BS to me. When he told me about these so-called powers, I just shrugged it off. To be honest, I didn't think they made a difference in my life. But then, it got to the point where simply trying to live with them became a hassle." He pauses to toss a rock into the river. "I realized, I could either let this stuff control me, or learn to take control of it myself."