HAVEN || SATORU GOJO

XXIII

"WE'RE OFF NOW, SENSEI!" The four first years bid farewell to their teacher as they left for winter break, going to some hot springs with one another, enjoying a break from the catastrophic events that occurred just weeks ago.

"Tell Rieka that we said Merry late Christmas!" He nodded, waving them off as they left their own imprints in the snow, marking their presence.

His smile died down a bit after they were far enough away.

"They seem pretty excited about the hot spring trip." It was Rieka and Gojo's christmas present to them. It was well deserved.

Every sorcerer that had helped them out that day had received some kind of compensation from the two. Some were more generous than others.

Megumi had gone to visit his sister for a bit before heading over to their place for dinner. They were going to stay in this year rather than go out to a nice place.

Christmas had passed just around a week ago. They were busy cleaning up the mess and funding the reconstruction for buildings that had been damaged and broken during the pandemonium, writing off bills and checks, reimbursing, just lots of paperwork.

It was the only way Rieka could busy herself, allowing her mind to wander a bit into more adulting matters.

IT WAS THROUGH THE PATHWAY OF A FOREST, a cliff long eroded and weathered to tower over the sapphire blue glory of a salty bountiful ocean that expanded farther than the eye could stretch toward the horizon.

The luscious green grass slowly sprang back to life, bouncing back from the cold and long winter that struck their parading glory. There were several littered and messy stones — not all of them had names carved.

There was no way this place could be properly called a cemetery, but if it was the resting place for the dead — it was.

Each head of each stone was crooked and tilted. And there was one at the very edge of the cliff.

The breeze blew past her figure. Her umber locks got entangled with the dancing gale. She was like a ghost, always coming and going, leaving small traces of her presence behind.

But on the edge of the cliff she sat, overlooking the bustling pedestrians and the daily routine of others.

The woman's ringer went off as she held the phone out by her ear. "Hey."

"Where are you?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll head back now."

There was no one really buried at the tombstone that she leaned against. Just memories of a fleeting person's wisp that they left behind. She always hated him for that. But most of all she hated fate. It was so cruel.

They were the strongest.

"Being strong isn't enough. I can only save those .. who are prepared to be saved."

"Suguru didn't want to be saved .. he wanted to save you. He wanted to save Shoko .. me .. he wanted to create a world that we wouldn't have to lay our lives down on the line. But he was such an imbecile .. doing all of this alone. As if one of you carrying a burden wasn't enough .."

Rieka was the only person who carried with her a fraction of Suguru's soul that was left. It whispered to her his thoughts .. his motivations and the purpose behind everything— after all, that was something that was extremely important for a sorcerer.

She had always been angry, carrying the same anger around ever since she was a little girl. But acceptance was much difference than forgetting.

It was like striking hot metal. but now she had cooled and she kept her composure, her shape. But the structure of her being was fragile.