Unmatched | ᴍᴀʜɪᴛᴏ

Chapter 31

He couldn't have kept me safe.
No one could have.
They would have had to lock me in, underground, away from civilization. But they didn't. Because he knew that it would make me unhappy, and he knew that I was strong enough to defend myself now. I would still always need him, and I had told him that before I left.

It wasn't supposed to be a dangerous trip. I wasn't supposed to be gone long. I had taken the same trip several times before and never had anything happened. Not once. Not once had anyone talked to me or even looked in my direction, except for the usual stares when my breasts jiggled as I hurried down a flight of stairs or when my ass shook in my tights.

My way to the store was always the same: When I left my new home, I emerged by a small canal, then I made my way down the street for maybe two minutes before taking a sharp left, then a right at the big intersection and I was right in front of the store. There were always so many people around that it was hard for me to detect any kind of unnatural amount of cursed energy. But there also had never been a need to.

Not once had anyone laid their hands on me so fast that I wasn't even able to defend myself. And not once had that person dragged me backward away from the crowd without anyone noticing; one hand on my mouth and the other clenching around my throat.

Until today.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw only blackness. The room I was in was so dark that the only light came from the slit beneath the door. I was chained to a chair, my hands behind me in what felt like iron gloves. I supposed that whoever had taken me wanted to prevent me from being able to use my cursed technique. They were smart. When I tried to break the gloves apart with cursed energy, it only got reflected back and burned my hands. My ankles were chained to the legs of the chair, and I wriggled my legs to hear them rattle.

"There's no need to struggle," a voice said from somewhere. "You won't get out of these chains unless I want you to. They're designed to keep much more powerful sorcerers than you."

A light was flicked on above my head, and I flinched back from the sudden piercing feelings in my eyes. I pressed them shut for a moment and opened them again to find a man in front of me. He was wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face, but his dark eyes were glaring at me. I had to grin because I imagined what it would look like if Gojo would wear this mask in addition to his blindfold.

The man was confused by my grin, I could see it. "What's so funny?"

I grinned even wider when I realized that he thought he would be scary. He thought he would come in here and intimidate me with his mask and his eyes and the chains. It took every effort not to laugh out loud.

"Do you know who I am?" I asked.

"Why else do you think you're here?"

I tilted my head to the side to look at him like I would look at a child. The smile on my lips was ridiculing now. "If you know who I am, then you also know who I'm with and that you don't scare me."

I was in love with a cursed spirit who killed people for fun and who taught me to do the same. That man wasn't scaring me. He never could.

His expression changed. He hadn't expected me to say that. "Then I will have to make you scared."

Before I could register what he was saying, the tip of a knife broke the skin on my leg, and he shoved it deeper into the flesh. I clenched my jaw but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of screaming even though I knew that if he did it right, I would never be able to repair the damage and I wouldn't be able to walk again. But I had felt pain like this many times before - the scars on my body proved this - so to me, this was just another Tuesday.

His face was close to mine as he leaned onto his knife, and I snapped my head forward, slamming my forehead against his. He yelped in pain and wrenched the knife from my leg as he stumbled backward a little. I flexed the muscle in my thigh to find out if he had severed anything. He hadn't, what made me grin again. I focused my cursed energy on the cut in my leg, which was now staining my pants with blood, making me roll my eyes. I would have to buy new ones, and these were my favorite tights! They made my ass look great, and Mahito loved them, too.

"You bitch!" the man snapped at me, twisting the knife around in his hand and getting ready to attack me with it again.

I licked my lips. "If you come near me again, I will hit you again."

He gritted his teeth, and I could see in his eyes that he was debating what he should do. I wasn't going to make this easy for him. That bastard prevented me from getting food, snatched me off the middle of the street, took me away from Mahito, the love of my life, locked me into these humiliating chains, and ruined my pants. He was going to pay for this!

And then he made a decision. With his foot between my legs, he pushed the chair back against the wall, my head slamming against it with the force he was using. I grunted and rolled my eyes at him.

"Be gentle, you dick!"

He whacked his open palm across my face, making my cheek sting. I hadn't felt that pain in a while. It reminded me of my mother. And I hated my mother. The man must have noticed my expression because his turned satisfied.

He stood back a little, out of reach for my head, and clenched his fists. I wondered what he was going to do. I supposed that my technique made me even more sensitive to cursed energy, but he didn't have any, I could feel it. He felt different than the sorcerers I had encountered. Gojo's energy felt indescribably strong; so strong that I sometimes felt like I could taste it on my tongue. Geto's Nanami's and Itadori's were also very strong, making my whole body tingle. Fushiguro's had this weird aftertaste, as if someone had mixed a bit too much pepper into a soup. Mahito's cursed energy was like he was himself: unmatched. It made me want to taste it, to feel it in my veins.

But this man felt like any other person. The unsure look in his eyes also told me that he had no idea what to do with his bare hands. If I got my hands free, he would be powerless against me, and he knew it.

I wondered what he wanted from me. Why had he brought me here? But I was sure he would reveal that all too soon.