HAVEN || SATORU GOJO

IX

THEY HAD TAKEN THEIR TIME to get back to the school .. under the protection of Tengen's barrier where sorcerers would no longer be able to target Riko. It was an extremely late night that branched into an early morning. They whined and complained for hours before begrudgingly getting up to board their jet.

The not so refreshing humidity of Tokyo had given them a rude awakening from the fever dream last night. The sound of honking cars and mixed murmurs of pedestrians, thankfully it was much quieter after they had entered the school grounds.

It was surrounded by forest green on all sides. A long trail of stairs with toriis that towered over them led them to the entrance of the school. Every torii had probably half millennia old talismans on them and the school was preserved extremely well by alumni and Tengen itself despite its old age.

"What a relief!" Riko exclaimed, feeling a little more safe knowing that the barrier practically protected her from just about every single threat that was after her life.

"Relief .." Gojo muttered. Everything had come to an end. The reality of Riko's impending future awaited in just less than an hour.

Rieka tried her best to plaster a sincere smile on her face. "Do you want a tour, Riko?"

She nodded her head vigorously.

Suguru placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Satoru, thanks for your hard work."

The boy brushed off the thanks by waving his hand carelessly. "No more babysitting, huh." He eased his shoulders and deactivated the Limitless that had been circulating for almost three days on end, minus the time he was asleep.

They all chuckled at his distasteful expression. It was clear that he was actually rather tired still. But he did his best to hide the drowsiness that seemed to overtake him everytime he'd blink. Sleeping for those four hours might've made everything much worse. The urge to go back to sleep was rather daunting.

Rieka gazed over to him with a smile on her face. "You enjoyed it, its okay to admi—" The woman froze in her tracks.

He was certainly wide awake now, his eyes shot open in surprise.

"Satoru!" Rieka shouted, throwing Riko behind her immediately out of instinct. Both of her hands reached behind to hold the girl's own shivering ones.

Her cursed energy began to protrude from her body.

A blade ran straight through the boy's chest, trickling with his blood that hadn't been shed in quite some time.

It wasn't just Gojo who had his eyes wide open .. but all of them.

It was impossible for a sorcerer to get through their barrier by normal means.

"Do I .. know you from somewhere?" A droplet of sweat trickled down from his jaw.

The man grinned. "Don't worry about it. I'm not one to remember names either."

"Except yours." He locked eyes with Rieka who took a step back.

The shadows at her feet snapped at him as he leapt back, much familiar with them from their last encounter.

She knew him. The Sorcerer Killer. The one that hunted down Jujutsu sorcerers and assassinated them ruthlessly.

The man who defied the impossible and didn't have even an ounce of cursed energy. Nothing at all.

The one who had just almost killed her.

She knew he hadn't died that day, he merely disappeared, somehow evading her ability.

Suguru acted quickly, releasing one of his larger curses out from the palm of his hand as it swished past Gojo's cheek and curved around, round mouth filled with razor sharp teeth wide open, ready to engulf him whole as the man pulled the sword out, leaping up into the air, falling victim into its jaws.