A Fallen Morning Star

A Hesitant Helping Hand?

A/N: With Danika's morning star, think of Trevor Belmont's morning star from Castlevania.

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August 2006

"Damn you! I'm going to kick your ass at the next goodwill event, bastard!" Danika could hear Akio shout from the rec room. She laughed and pulled the pie she baked from the fridge to divide up. She made sure to leave a couple of slices for Gojo and Geto who should be back from their mission soon.

"You have no room to argue, Dani! You died, first!" Her twin brother, Minato shouted.

"How dare you!"

"So, only three slices for me, Nanami and Yu. Got it." Danika nodded and put the pie pan back in the fridge minus slices for Gojo, Geto, Yu, Nanami and herself. She pulled out two forks and brought the plates out into the rec room. "Besides, they targeted me. I died because of you assholes didn't cover me."

Dani was greeted to whines at where their slices of pie were. Dani smirked as she took a big bite out of hers. She moaned, "So, good."

"You're being a real bitch today, Danika."

"Bake a pie yourself."

"Yeah, I can do that. Just give me a minute." Minato drawled. "I'll end up destroying the kitchen and then Yaga will kill me. After Gojo destroyed the kitchen, last time."

Danika laughed at the memory of it. Evacuating the dorm building because he wanted to use cursed energy on the microwave to speed it up. Dani opened her mouth to respond but-. A grin spread across her lips and she sprang to her feet. "Gojo and Geto are back. I'm going to see how the mission went. See ya."

"We need you to play, Dani." Akio and Yu whined from the couch.

"Bully Nanami into it." Dani shrugged and headed to where she sensed the pair. A pit seemed to form in her gut and Danika frowned. From what Nanami told her, the mission was fine after a couple of hiccups at the beginning and from texting with Gojo and Geto. She shouldn't have any doubt in her friends. They were the strongest, after all.

She cut through the forest to save time. She stopped when she felt something off. She formed the hand sign needed when she felt Gojo's cursed energy explode from up ahead. "Nullify!" Danika cut through his technique. Something was wrong.

The trees around her area of effect cleared and toppled under Gojo's power. Damn. Gojo should be able to handle this but she needed to raise the alarm. Someone breached the barrier. Dani didn't need to go far to do so. Dani just needed to get close enough to fire something off. Danika took off back to where she came and she skidded to the outskirts of the campus. Dani pointed her finger and fired a bolt of lightning into the sky. A flash of a blinding blue and a loud boom of thunder chasing the bolt. That should've turned some heads. Dani turned her gaze back and ran. Who in the hell managed to break through the barrier?

"Satoru?"

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Danika swung by the grocery store for dinner and wine. She was in the mood for a good steak with baked potato and corn on the cob. Her twin daughters were over at a friend's for a sleepover for the weekend. Danika planned to take advantage of a child free nights and asked for Friday and Sunday off to have a three day weekend to relax by the pool and a hot tub. She could drink wine and soak while catching up on Grey's Anatomy.

Danika tried to put the meeting with the jujutsu students on Wednesday out of her mind. She rationalized that she gave them everything she could and it was up to them but.. Dani was still uncertain. Dani sighed but her mind nagged at her with memories as she marinated the steaks and prepared the potatoes and corn. She washed the juices of the meat off of her hands to get ready to relax. Dani put the disk in the TV and started the show. She had two seasons to catch up on before the newest premiered, next week.