Human Adjacent - Megumi Fushiguro x READER

Chapter 14

I did not wake screaming, nor was I drenched in icy cold sweat, nor was my heart thumping rapidly against my ribs like a busted metronome. The only evidence that anything had happened at all was the sour taste in my mouth and the residual pressing feeling that something was severely wrong.

My skin felt strange, too tight; and I was chilled to the bone. Somewhere far away in my mind, tucked in a place I could barely brush my fingers against if I stood on my toes, I had a ghost of a memory of feeling very, very afraid. Only I couldn't remember why.

What a strange thing.

"You okay?"

My eyes grappled with the darkness, trying to lock onto the source of the whisper to no avail. No matter, I'd recognize that voice if I were blind and underwater.

"I'm good. Must've had a bad dream." I whisper back to the inky darkness.

Fushiguro and I silently rolled up our futons, kissed Tsuki and Kenji goodbye, and left as quietly as we could, latching the door behind us.

The sun was still hiding away, faint bits of red bleeding over the horizon the only illumination to guide our hike back to the countryside campus.

We'd only made our way two and a half miles north from the location of our job, according to Fushiguro's phone.

As we walked, he briefed me on what we would be doing, as I'd never been on a retrieval mission.

"We'll go around and try to feel out the location of the finger, hopefully it reveals itself to us and the talisman is still at least partially in tact."

"And if that doesn't go well?"

Fushiguro sucked in a sharp breath.

"I'll figure it out."

I roll my eyes. I knew it would be something like that. Why even come get me if i'm so useless?

I eyed him cautiously, trying to take note of any tension in his features, but aside from the usual knotted shoulders and stick-up-my-ass grimace he always wore, there was no sign of nerves or stress in him.

"Aren't you scared?" I ask.

He shakes his head.

"Just... on edge, I guess. A missing special grade is a big deal. Gojo should be here himself."

I nod, pressing my lips together tightly as we curl around a fence into an opening. It feels like a lie, he looks so relaxed, even tucking his hands into the pockets of his black uniform pants, his jacket already discarded and laid over one arm. His sleeves were rolled up to combat the country heat, and I find myself avoiding looking his exposed forearms. I watch his face instead, and the vein in his neck pulsing steadily. If he really is feeling how he says he gives no sign of it, and I can't help the bite of jealousy it sends through me.

When we've wound through the gate of the tall fence and maneuvered through the bright yellow barricades, the field we step onto feels heavy with cursed energy. Even in the broad daylight of the countryside, I find myself shivering under the weight of it. 

I don't reply to Fushiguro, opting to keep to myself the fact that I feel so afraid I could vomit. If he's going to treat me like a child, the least I can do is buck up and fight the urge to act like one. I swallow down the familiar beat of panic at the sight of a curse swimming through the ground, and remind myself who I am and what I know. It doesn't look at us, or speak, or do much of anything but float like liquid through the lush grass; it looks high level - drawn by Sukuna's finger- but it does not worry itself to pick a fight.