Koi No Yokan (gojo x oc)

32. Departure

December 2013
The next morning.

Shigeri presses his lips to the lobe of my ear, hands enveloping mine tightly. "We need to celebrate the engagement more once you're back."

"What kind of celebration?"

"Nice dinners," he kisses my jaw softly, "My sister will want to go out with us too," my cheek, "We can finally visit the National Garden in Shinjuku like you've been asking," my nose, "And we also need to practice."

I run my hand through the ends of his hair. "Practice what?"

"You know," he smiles, "Consummating the marriage."

"Oh, Sensei!" Sachi waves from the top of the stairs to the courtyard, running down towards us with the other two trailing behind. Shigeri and I pull apart immediately. "You don't have to do that, Uematsu Sensei," he smiles, so large that his eyes squeeze shut. "We all know you and Kamo Sensei are together."

I fail to find my next words, and stutter profusely. Perhaps because I'm their teacher or simply because I'm older, I don't feel the urge to scream to the world that I'm with Shigeri—not the way I had with Satoru. This partnership felt reserved, private, but at the same time, concrete. I'm not being held over the edge of a cliff with him and I like that.

Shigeri laughs, "Don't embarrass her, Sachi-kun."

"Is it true you're leaving?" Sachi asks, "Who's going to look after us?"

"Shigeri—I mean Kamo Sensei will take care of everything," I say, "It'll go by quickly. You won't even realize I'm gone."

"They said they're sending you away because Ryomen Sukuna is after you." Runa arrives at the ground level of the courtyard with Iwao, little ribbons tied into the bottom of her braids.

"Who said that?"

"The other students. It's a test they said. If you manage to find a finger overseas, then he really is drawn to you."

My saliva gets caught in the center of my throat, rolling down painfully slowly from Runa's soulless tone, her steel, wide eyes staring straight into mine.

"Don't believe everything you hear, Runa-chan," Shigeri says lightly, "The other students like to scare each other with rumors."

Runa's voice is small, but clear, "And if it's not just a rumor?"

"It is a rumor." I force myself to smile. "Besides, if the day ever comes when I have to face him, I'll win."

"Of course you would, Sensei!" Sachi pumps his fist into the air, "We'd be right there with you!"

"Good." I smile again, genuinely this time. "I like that attitude."

We let the students break into their own chatter as we wait for my departure. Shigeri leans in, lowers his voice so only I can hear, "Students don't come up with those kinds of rumors on their own."

"Yaga mentioned something before," I say, "About sending Kei-chan to monitor me."

His brow furrows. "You think it's true, then? That this is some kind of test?"

I glance at my students, laughing, bright-eyed, hope still intact. "I don't know."

"This is ridiculous," he scoffs, "Using you as bait for Sukuna—or baiting you into giving them a reason to have you executed. All of this trouble," his jaw tightens, "For coincidence."

I shift my eyes from them to the endless sky above, the clouds moving slowly through an even blue. "Six times is too many for a coincidence. If I am the reason the fingers are being gathered into one place.... Maybe something should be done about me."

"How can you say that?" The sick look on his face is no longer the one reserved for the higher ups. It's more pitiful than that, more personal. "We're getting married, Kaede. Spending our lives together. You understand that, right? We're not in the position to self-sacrifice anymore."

"It's bigger than just the two of us."

He grabs my hand with a sudden force, "Exactly, which means even if you give up, another sorcerer will come along and be targeted by him all the same. Who will be there to protect them?"

I sensed him far sooner than I could hear him. "Good morning!"

Satoru was waving at us from the top of the courtyard, cursed energy drowning us so far beneath him. For a fraction of a moment, I saw his long limbs, smiling and waving on the grounds of a school he hadn't been to for years and I saw him—seventeen and in uniform, hair bunched up at the back of his head, running towards me with the urgency I adored.

"Are these your students?"

"No way!" Sachi cried, "Gojo Satoru?"

Though Iwao and Runa's reactions were not as vocal, I could see their eyes scanning him in awe. It's times like these I remember he's merely a concept to most Jujutsu sorcerers, an unattainable symbol of strength. None of them really know his voice or his eyes, that he's ticklish around the torso, or gets confused trying to build furniture. That he likes to feed stray cats and is awful at karaoke. He's not human to them.

Is he still human to me?

"What are you doing here?"

"I brought a gift for your travels." He pulls a pair of sunglasses from his pocket, the same round-rimmed pair he had worn while we were students. "Try them on."

"I won't be able to see."

"I had the lenses changed," he says, "It's one-way glass now."

My mistake was reaching out for them, raising the hand with the ring I know he immediately saw. But when he goes on speaking as if nothing has happened, I'm... wounded almost. All the little things about him I held safe in my memory seemed to fade out within a second. They're not about him anymore, they're about someone else—someone who was still human.

The world is masked in gray by the glasses, a mourning color. "It's... nice." My words are heavy, struggling to find their way past my lips. I pull them off almost immediately. "Thanks."

"They're the only ones I've owned," he says, "One of a kind."

"Maybe you should keep them."

"No." His hands disappear in his pockets. "They're yours."

"It's useful for your technique," Shigeri—too kind for his own good—offers, "Now they won't know where you're looking."

The air thickens around me. I can feel the glasses in my hand, the fragility of frames I could crush between my fingers if I really wanted to—but I didn't. I couldn't let go of the Satoru who used to wear them. "I think I'll go now."

"Really?" Shigeri says, "You still have some time."

"No, I should leave." The distance would be better for our engagement, for my own sanity—maybe even the preservation of Satoru and I's friendship. "Take care of each other, okay?"

Sachi grins. "Don't forget about us while you're gone, Sensei!"

"How could I forget you guys?" I manage a smile. "I'll be searching for your souvenirs the entire time."

"Sensei..." Runa speaks up, eyes wandering as if she's reconsidering, "...Be careful."

Shigeri squeezes my hand one last time, pressing down on his ring. "Come back soon."

And then, like the final nail in my coffin, Satoru speaks calmly, "Safe travels."

I look at him, an immense pressure forcing the air out of my lungs, and I can't speak. I can only turn away like a coward and leave everyone before the situation confuses me more than it already has.