Evil spirits (Satoru x reader)

Searching

The rain didn't seem to leave the city. It continued pouring down during the night, making the sky seem even darker than usual. But (Y/N) didn't mind. She loved to hear the rain falling outside as she stayed in her bed. Sleep mostly found her only in the early morning hours, so she was on her notebook writing emails. She had made many friends during her travels, and that's how she mostly stayed in contact with them.

It was still morning when she woke up to the noises of the city. Although she had been traveling for almost four weeks, she was still used to the quietude of the monastery in Tibet where she had stayed. She couldn't go back to sleep, so she decided to get ready for the day.

As she watched her reflection in the mirror, she couldn't resist tracing her burning marks on her face with her finger. She had those marks all over her body remnants of the ancient ritual she had endured at the monastery. The memories of the procedure came rushing to her mind.

*** Flashback ***

(Y/N) tried with all her force not to scream while her flesh was being burned with an incandescent iron, failing miserably at the attempt. The monk that was burning her was a friend she had made there, and the scent of burned flesh along with her screams was making him sick to his stomach.

(Y/N) passed out, so the young monk stopped. For this to work, for the ritual to have an impact on the soul, the sorcerer must be awake and endure the pain, or at least that's what the instructions on the scroll said. While he waited for her to wake up again, he treated her burning marks with ointment. He noticed how her forehead was getting warm, probably gaining a fever already. It had been the third time she had passed out, and they were only halfway through. With a wet cold cloth on her forehead, she began to reopen her eyes.

"(Y/N), I don't know if I can continue with this."

"No pleas, Taavi, you can't stop now. It must be concluded within a day or else it will be in vain. I will try even harder to stay awake."

Taavi couldn't say no to her, although his heart bled while he was doing this. As he continued, it seemed (Y/N) was screaming less and only passed out once more before they finally ended the rite. Her fever was getting dangerously high. If it wasn't for modern medicine, she may have died of infection from her wounds. That's why this method to increase and get control over the curse energy was banished all these years ago and was practically forgotten. Back in the days, it would be more to die during the procedure than those who lived...

*** End of flashback ***

After her skincare routine, she began to apply her full-coverage foundation so that at least the burning marks on her face would stay hidden. Besides the foundation, she kept the makeup to a minimum, though.

Today, she would be trying to find Satoru. She packed some food and water in a much smaller backpack than the one she would travel with so she didn't have to stop her pursuit. She needed to be aware of the time, though, because today was Friday, and she had her first shift at work.

She made her way to the address Susumu had given her. Could he still be at home? The workplace address she had was of a Buddhist temple. Surely, it was a facade for the Tokyo Jujutsu High. Satoru must be a teacher there like most jujutsu sorcerers are. As she watched the entrance of the apartment building, she began to think about how she would approach Satoru. She needed to be careful and not reveal who she really was. Could she manage not being recognized by him? They didn't spend that much time together back in the past, and she surely had changed much since her second year of high school. She had changed her hair, her body was now much toned because of the intense training she did, and most importantly, she could now completely control her curse energy. If she wanted to hide it, she could and so would hopefully pass as a normal person.

Some hours later, she had enough of waiting without a sign of him. It was already afternoon, and she had given up on the hope that she would see him go in or out of his home. She put the address of the Buddhist temple on her phone and made her way there.

As she walked up the stairs on the mountain, she had to admit the school was well hidden. Sadly, she couldn't go further because of the protective barrier. That meant she had to wait again. But this time, she wouldn't just sit around. She left the stairs and went deeper into the woods. This was a good place to train, and she surely was in need of that. With all the traveling she did, she hasn't been able to train lately.

Using her innate ability, she formed her cursed energy to create a pair of sai, her weapon of choice. She imagined the weapons in her hands, how the handles felt against her palms, the weight of them, the metal that formed one long pointy prong in the middle, and two curved ones on each side. And then the weapons appeared in her hands. (This description may sound long, but all that happened just in fractions of a second.) Before the ritual she had gone through in Tibet, it would take her more concentration and way longer to mold her cursed energy like that, but now it was easy.

She then positioned herself in a fighting stance and went through the moves. Sometimes, she needed to stop because she would sense someone approaching, but it never was Gojo Satoru. After a good three hours of training, she gave up waiting for him that day. It was time for her to go, or else she would be late for her first day of work.

In the bar, she met her new co-worker. "Hi, my name is Sarah, Kazuo told me I should show you around."

"Nice to meet you, I'm (Y/N), but if you don't mind, can you call me Yuna?"

(Y/N) would often flirt with her customers so they would tip her higher, but sometimes they would get the wrong idea, so she preferred to use an alias, besides the situation with Gojo.

"Of course. Kazuo has told us about that. I must say it's a good idea. Some men sometimes don't know boundaries."

Sarah showed her everything she needed to know at the bar. It was a well-organized working space that wasn't something granted everywhere but was very welcomed.

*****

That weekend passed, and some couple of weeks too. (Y/N)'s boss was very pleased with her work, and she would do the later shift from Wednesday to Saturday and the afternoon on Sunday.

It didn't seem that Satoru was around. At least, she hadn't seen him yet. She has been jogging by his apartment and the school instead of just sitting around. In the meantime, she had a plan for how to approach him. He would eventually notice her, maybe even before she would actually see him, with his eyes, it would be possible. Then, he most likely would want to know who she was. That would be the crucial point where she had to let her magic work and hope it would turn in her favor.

After so many days of going the same route, she almost missed the tall man with the white hair she was searching for. If it wasn't for his almost unique features, she surely would, but there he was. He was going in the direction of the school, so (Y/N) passed him and went ahead. She would usually run up the stairs to the barrier and then down again. It seemed that Satoru didn't go that way, or maybe he was late?

It surely looked like he had been away before because the next four days consecutively, she had seen him. The closest she passed by him was that last time when she came down the stairs that led to the school and he was going up. That close to him, she could feel his presence, and it was so overwhelming. She remembered his piercing eyes and imagined how they were put on her, and that didn't help with the feeling.

Then, the next day, as she was running by his apartment complex, she felt a presence behind her. 'It must be him. He has surely noticed me.'

Against all her senses that were screaming at her to turn around and protect herself, she kept facing forward and focused on maintaining an even step. She could feel the pressure of the wind right behind her that indicated something brushed her. She ended up turning around because even a normal person would feel that. But behind her was nothing.

She then continued her jogging and saw Satoru on the other side of the street waving at her. She tried her best to look surprised. Not every day someone would see a man with a blindfold waving at them. To maintain her act, she looked back to see if there was someone behind her that he could be waving at, but seeing no one, she waved him back and gave him an awkward smile. She then kept her route in case he would follow her. 'Now that he got the bait, it's showtime.'