Catoru

The Cat Won't Leave My Side

I woke up to a loud meowing and prodding on my face. I was breathing heavily and my clothes clung to the small of my back with sweat. I looked over and Satoru meowed once more. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Traces of the nightmare still flashed in my mind but quickly faded in the morning light.

The monster didn't even get close to me so why am I having nightmares about it?

Satoru stood on my thigh and meowed at me again.

"I'm okay." I said.

He gave me a look that said he wasn't convinced. I rolled my eyes and got ready for the day. Satoru trailed me everywhere in the house, scrutinizing my face. When I ate breakfast, he sat on the counter and stared at me. He glanced at the clock and then looked at me.

"Mrreow!" He trilled before walking his head into my hand for me to pet him. His tail ran under my chin before he hopped off the counter and blipped out of existence.

Utahime POV

Sweat ran down my brow as we were all called into a meeting about the cat cursed spirit that caused a ruckus yesterday. The elders are calling it a special grade based on the readings of the residuals. Apparently on par with Gojo. They've been trying to reach him but haven't been able to.

I just wanted to pull a prank. This got way bigger than it needed to

In the corner of my eye, I saw something white and fluffy.

No.

The cat smirked at me, its tail swishing back in forth in preparation for mischief.

You deserved this and you know you did just cut me some slack!

The cat open its mouth and while it was clumsy the number of years we'd known each other had filled in all the blanks I needed to decipher the message.

"Payback"

He let out an ear-splitting yowl and everyone's attention was on him. He stood there innocently grooming himself and then pointedly stared at me in a way that looked incredibly creepy on a weirdly blue-eyed cat. I could feel all the wheels turning in the room as Satoru hopped down and entered, walking directly up to me. This is the special cursed energy cat. This cat has strangely familiar blue eyes and white hair. Now that we have a closer look at it, those glasses are incredibly familiar. Satoru hopped onto my lap and purred.

I'm screwed.

"Utahime. Would you care to explain?" The principal asked.

Gojo POV

I settled on the table as Haru, the young sorcerer from Kyoto translated for me with sweat running down his brow.

"So start off with what happened yesterday." Masamichi asked me.

"I was attempting to protect someone who was targeted by the Star Religious Group yesterday. The curse currently placed on my body doesn't react well to more complex jujutsu techniques." Haru relayed to the group. "Since nothing else was working, I tried domain expansion. It worked but well....you saw the result."

Haven't had a blunder like that since my first year as a sorcerer

"Targeted?"

"Yea. They gave her a business card that attracted curses. I guess to make her desperate enough to seek their services and eventually get indoctrinated." Haru translated.

Yesterday must've affected her a bit too because she's been tired. No cursed energy but she doesn't seem to have a good sense of danger either.

"That explains why there's been an increase in curse activity in the area." Masamichi sighed. "And how did you get cursed?"

I looked at Utahime who sighed, her lip trembling.

"I wanted this bastard to stop eating my food! So I cursed him to teach him a lesson."

My tail swished around as my eyes narrowed at her. A smirk on my lips.

That's not a good enough reason to incapacitate me.

"Well if you got caught this easy you deserved it." Principal Masamichi said.

Haru choked down a laugh as I stood up in shock.

"Besides...coworkers who eat other people's lunches are the lowest of the low." Masamichi said giving me a disappointed look beyond his sunglasses.

I hissed at him since Haru was too busy laughing it up to translate any of the expletives I was saying in my head.

"However, this does pose a problem since we'll eventually need him to handle something."

Good luck trying to get me to do anything.

The principal thought out loud about things we could do in the meantime but as far as I was concerned this conversation was over. I teleported to the house and waited for my favorite admirer to come home.

Y/N POV

My cat has been glued to me since yesterday. He won't even let me shower by myself, which I guess is typical cat behavior but still. Unusual for him. The cat stood at the door, not looking at me but not turning back to me either. I couldn't find it in me to be annoyed because him being here helped out a lot. Work was killing me and those cult members were doing some heavy recruiting around my job. Just looking at the cute little guy made the building stress melt away. I leaned on the side of the tub.

"I'm okay, Satoru."

He meowed at me, stubbornly standing in the doorway.

"Come here."

Satoru glanced at me then padded over sitting closer to the tub. I picked him up and kissed him on the forehead.

"Thanks for protecting me." I said.

He quickly walked back to the doorway but I could hear how loud he was purring from the tub. His tail was also as high as could be. I got out of the tub and walked to my room. Satoru was right behind me, refusing to be in a separate room. I got dressed while he sniffed all of my work stuff. When he felt satisfied he settled on the bed and waited for me. I was pretty tired so I went to bed early.

Don't move.

I knew this game. I've had this dream before. They couldn't see me in the darkness but they could hear me. And they were listening for me. I tiptoed to where I thought the exit could be and waited for the light in the distance to flash again. Once I got the relative position of my enemies I tiptoed again then waited.

Another flash but this time I was right behind a monster.

I tensed worried it would turn around or bump into me or hear my heartbeat thudding in my chest.

Another flash. The monster is in the same place but this time, it was looking dead at me. Its eyes hungry as he moved forward and the world faded to darkness again.

I woke up to Satoru looking over me, meowing. Once again, I was sweaty but this time no morning light to chase anything away. I looked over at the clock. 4 am. Satoru rubbed all over my face and I sleepily pulled him close to my chest. He froze, unused to it before he settled. He meowed again and I kissed the top of his head.

"Thanks for waking me up. I wasn't enjoying that stress dream." I sighed.

I reached for the remote and turned on the TV to something innocuous so the room wasn't so dark. Then with Satoru kneading on my arm and purring I fell asleep.