365 days | Satoru Gojo x OC

Day Twelve

ׂ╰┈➤ 12th september

"Are you all good?" Kukomi rests her arm around Natsuki's shoulder as they step outside in the back, their long and draining shift finally coming to its sweet end. "You seem really tired." She glances down at Natsuki's eye bags as they lean against the rough brick wall.

"Oh, just Gojo being loud at night like usual." Natsuki pulls out a box of cigarettes, flipping it open and gesturing it to her friend. "You want one?" Kukomi takes one with an eager nod, but as she lights both hers and Natsuki's, she grows more confused. "But you told me today that he promised to be quiet?"

Natsuki nods, inhaling the smoke deeply before sighing it out, tilting her head away. "He definitely wasn't as loud as before, but around four, he dragged something from his room to the front door. And before you ask—" she chuckles, pointing her finger at Kukomi, "no, I didn't get to see what it was. It was gone by the time I got up." She shrugs as Kukomi tilts her head in confusion.

"You don't think he was dragging a body from his room, do you?" Kukomi says it so genuinely that Natsuki chokes, spluttering out smoke as she bends over, laughing loudly.

"God, Kukomi! He's annoying, sure, but he's not a murderer!" Natsuki giggles again, trying to compose herself. "You hear someone dragging something, and your mind goes to BODY?! Hilarious!"

Kukomi's hands fly up defensively. "You never know! There's a lot of weirdos out there." She shrugs, and Natsuki scrunches her eyebrows, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Gojo may be annoying, but he's no murderer. Even if he were to murder someone, it would probably be for a good reason.

But... why does she think that? Gosh, she hasn't even known him for two weeks, and she's so quick to defend him. He's just so... familiar. Maybe it's his friendly face or the way he speaks to her, but she feels the immense need to defend him.

She smiles, looking down at her cigarette as she flicks the flakey ash onto the floor. "He's weird, but not that weird." The words come out of her like a lie, and she has to stop herself from giggling again. "Anyway, it sounded more metallic than fleshy."

"Ooh! Maybe it was actually a robot, and he has a thing for robots?" Kukomi giggles jokingly, stamping out the nub of her cigarette. She looks up and sees Natsuki's shocked, contorted face. "I'm kidding!"

"No, you're disgusting." Natsuki grimaces at her friend, inhaling the last bit of her cigarette before stamping it out on the ground. "Do you know what that sounds like, Kukomi?"

"No, what?"

"Projection." The two girls had begun walking back to the front, but Kukomi stands still, mouth wide open. "What do you mean?"

Natsuki giggles and walks back over, hooking their arms together. "It was a joke." The pair continue walking, making their way to the front, Kukomi completely puzzled.

They eventually arrive at the front and say their goodbyes, Natsuki chuckling slightly at Kukomi's permanently confused face. "See you on our next shift, Kukomi!" she waves, slipping on her headphones as Kukomi waves back, walking in the opposite direction.

As Natsuki walks up the road to her apartment, she notices water trickling down the street beside her, migrating toward the drains. As usual, the sudden urge to control, shift, and manipulate the water tingles in her hands. They gently twitch, lifting slightly before dropping back down to her side. She can't do it.

Well... technically, she can. But on the day she decided to leave the cursed world of jujutsu behind, she knew she had to leave the positive parts of it behind as well. That's why she hadn't spoken to ANY of her friends from that chapter of her life—not Nanami, not Ino, not Shoko, and most definitely not Komiki or Geto.

If it weren't for Komiki, she probably would still be at Jujutsu High, tied to it by the girl's heartstrings. And even if she had left the school without the powerful fuel of her friend's death, she would have definitely stayed in touch with Komiki.

I mean, that girl was quite literally her entire world.

They would learn all their lessons together, often with another friend like Shoko or Geto or—wait, who else? That's not important though. They would learn together, eat together, sleep together, fight together. Hell, they bled together.

Natsuki's hands brush against her front door, but something weighs heavily on her, causing her to pause.

Who was the other student? When she had attended, in her year it was her, Shoko, Komiki, Geto, and someone else. Different faces fill the student's void in her mind, but none feel right. Who was it? She spent every day with this person... so who on earth was it? She remembers the interactions between all the others perfectly, but the fifth student is just a big fat blank. His absence wouldn't make sense in the group since he and Geto were a duo, next to the trio of Shoko, Komiki, and herself.

Ah! At least she remembers his gender, but just not him. Whoever he was.

She pushes open the front door and slips off her shoes, shivering slightly as a memory jolts through her.

An image of her looking at her friends as they mess around on the beach plants itself in her mind.

Shoko sits on a rock, cigarette in hand, the smoke blowing into her short hair beautifully. In her lap, Komiki is looking up at her, reaching out and fiddling with her necklace, twiddling the beads between her fingers, a small smile on her face. In front of her, in the shallow water, Geto sits with his hair down, shielding his eyes with his arms as someone splashes him. But—damn—the splashing water protects his identity.

"What the fuck...?" She ruffles her hair, shaking her head gently as she rushes into the living room where Gojo lies on the sofa, eating a whole bar of milk chocolate—odd, but okay—and watching Twilight. Really?

He lifts his head to look at her, smiling. "Hey, I was wondering when you were going to get back—" She runs past him and into her room before he can finish. He sighs, throwing his hands straight up in the air in defeat. "Oh, what the hell?"

In her room, she practically leaps from wall to wall, scanning and rescanning all the photos on it. Sure enough, he's not there.

Shoko is. Komiki is. Geto is. She is. Heck, even Nanami and Ino have a photo on her wall. But not the fifth person in her year. He seems to be simply missing.

How can a whole classmate be wiped from her entire current and past life despite spending years with her?

Although she doesn't know it just yet, the answer is cursed energy.

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