Kodoku

Chapter 26

Sarah woke slowly, her mind groggy and disoriented. The room was dark, the only light coming from a sliver of moonlight sneaking through a gap in the curtains. Her senses were hazy, but the musty smell of the room began to settle around her like a familiar cloud.

A motel, she realized, recognizing the lingering scent of old furniture and stale air. It could have been the same one she and Gojo had stayed in before, or one like it. Her head throbbed slightly, but what really hit her was the sudden absence—the absence of something she had lived with for so long she didn’t even know how to function without it. Sukuna’s influence, the fingers, that constant rage, it was... gone.

She shifted slightly, trying to sit up. That's when it hit her. Her skeletal arm was gone. She stared at the space where it had been, her remaining arm trembling as she adjusted herself into a sitting position. The numbness of it all, the finality of having that cursed appendage removed—it felt surreal.

As she shifted her gaze, she froze. Sitting in front of her, hunched over and facing away, was Gojo. His head hung down, his white hair messy and unruly as he leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs. He didn’t even glance in her direction. There was no sarcastic quip, no cocky grin. Just silence. His broad shoulders were tense, his usual confidence subdued.

Sarah stared at him, taking in the way his eyes were locked on the floor, the beautiful blue of them dimmed in the darkness. The silence between them was thick, weighed down by everything they had been through.

Her voice, rough and raw from exhaustion and maybe even tears she didn’t remember shedding, broke through the quiet, “Did you... did you get rid of Sukuna’s fingers?”

Gojo didn’t answer immediately. For a moment, she thought he might not respond at all, but then, with a slow, almost reluctant nod, he confirmed it.

She nodded to herself, processing the truth of it. Sukuna’s influence was finally, truly gone. After so many years, the power that had twisted her mind, that had fueled her hatred and rage, was erased.

“How’d you do it?” she asked, her voice quieter this time, a question that didn’t seem to hold the same venom it once would have.

There was a long pause before Gojo finally responded, his voice flat, “I’m not telling you.”

Sarah blinked, then nodded again. “That’s probably for the best," she replied.

And then the silence returned, thicker now with the weight of everything unsaid. Sarah sat there, her body aching but her mind clearer than it had been in years. The anger, the hatred that had driven her for so long—it was gone. What replaced it was something emptier, something... bitter. The rage had burned out, leaving her hollow, a void where her fury once burned bright. There was nothing left but the weight of years of pain, and it felt... strange. In a way, it felt like losing a part of herself, the part she had relied on to survive for so long.

For the first time in years, her mind was quiet. She didn’t even know if she liked it.

Gojo shifted, and Sarah looked up, catching his profile in the dim light. His eyes met hers for just a moment before he turned away again, but in that brief glance, she saw the exhaustion in him, the weariness that mirrored her own. His voice was softer than she had ever heard when he finally spoke again.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked, still not looking at her, “I’ll take you anywhere you want. It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing left for you here... and I want to get you somewhere safe.”

She stared at him, her mind struggling to process the words. Somewhere safe. It sounded foreign to her, the idea of safety, of having somewhere to go that wasn’t a battlefield or a constant state of war. She had spent so long running, fighting, hating—what did she even have left?