The Strongest | ɢᴏᴊᴏ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ

Chapter 4

My vision starts to blur at the same time as the deafening ringing in my ears starts. My heart is pounding against my ribcage, infused with adrenaline and shock. Even though every inch of my body hurts, I somehow manage to get to my feet and ignore the screaming pain.

The special-grade curse is coming towards me with slow steps as if it's taunting me and savoring every moment it can look at my miserable form. But I won't go down that easily. While my heart is still drumming in my ears and blocking out every other sound, I pull out two knives and stand ready.

Gojo will have to carry my body out of here if anything will be left of it. I can't let that happen. I can't let him find me like that without having done at least some damage to the cursed spirit. I don't want his last thought of me to be that I was too weak and that he had been right - I couldn't handle a special-grade curse.

Screaming at the top of my lungs, I run towards the cursed spirit. We collide in the middle of the room, the floor slick with my blood and cursed residuals. There's a banging sound that can only be interpreted as Gojo coming closer and pulverizing curses on his way. I won't let him find me dead.

My knives meet the target once, twice, three times, and the spirit groans every time my energy flows into it. When my first slams into it, I can feel it coming close to its limits, but so am I. I feel my cursed energy slipping through my fingers as if I'm trying to grasp for water, but it just flows and flows, pouring into every punch I land.

Maybe I should have taken Gojo up on his offer. Maybe we shouldn't have split up. But then I never would have known if I could take on a special-grade. I never would have seen the panic seep into its grotesque face when it, too, realizes that it's dying with me.

There's another crash that sounds closer than the one before that, but I barely register it. I also barely register the overwhelming feeling of warmth buzzing through me as Gojo's energy overcomes my senses. I hear him saying my name, but it sounds as if I'm underwater or very far away.

I want to pass out, and my body feels like it wants that too, but I can't. I stay conscious as a blue light brightens the room for a moment before the domain vanishes. I can barely see or hear through the exhaustion, but I can feel someone sweeping me up in their arms as if I weigh nothing.

A blindfolded face appears over me, but the mouth beneath it isn't curved into this familiarly irritating smile, so it takes me a moment to realize it's Gojo. He looks, for lack of a better word, concerned. Or annoyed, maybe. He's probably pissed that after all, he had to come and save me.

"Hold tight," he says to me, I think, but I can't move my limbs and he's cradling me so close to his chest that even if I wanted to throw my arm around his shoulders, I couldn't move it.

My head rests against his chest, and I can feel his heartbeat against my cheek. I'm starting to feel like this is a dream. "Shoko," I manage to say, my eyelids drooping. "Are you taking me to her?"

The man who's holding me, whose face I can't see anymore because he's looking up, says, "No. You're too weak for me to get you to her in time. You're losing a lot of blood."

I almost giggle. "Blood," I mumble. "Shoko."

I don't feel what happens next. All I know is that the cold shivers stop and that the world around me and my savior looks less pale and sad. There's a bright light somewhere that illuminates his face. Gojo's outline is blurring more and more, and in front of my eyes, he's transforming into - what? - an angel? His white hair is falling into his face as he looks down at me with two blue eyes, so bright and so clear that I think they can only belong to an angel.

Softness meets my back, and I lose the warmth of his chest, and the beating of his heart vanishes, but I'm so mesmerized by those eyes that I don't even care. "Are you an angel?" I ask and wonder why I'm even still speaking. Did I say that out loud or just imagine it?

The angel chuckles and puts a warm hand to my forehead. I feel safe. "(Y/n), I think you're delirious."

I don't know what he means by that, so I frown, or maybe I just think I do. "Why?"

The hand moves away from my forehead only to softly run the fingertips down the side of my face. "You'll regret having asked me that in the morning."

"Ask what?"

Another chuckle, this time softer and more amused. There's a faint sound of metal against wood as he puts my kives away. My eyes are falling shut, and I think maybe I'm finally passing out. But Gojo won't let me. "Don't fall asleep now," he says, his voice like a buoy that keeps me afloat while the water threatens to swallow me and drown me.

I want to ask him why. Why won't he let me sleep? Why is he still here? Where is here, anyway? Am I back at the hotel? Is this my room or his? Why won't he let me sleep?

"You can argue with me tomorrow, but for now, do as I tell you," he says as if he's heard my thoughts. Maybe I said them out loud? I can't remember. "I'm going to take off your jacket, is that okay?"

My brow furrows all on its own. "Yes," I sigh, "that's okay." Even though I don't know why -

A cold breeze hits me when Gojo unzips my jacket and exposes my body to the air around it. I'm glad I'm wearing a bra. Am I? I want to lift my head to check, but I barely manage to get it off the pillow, so I stay put.

"Can I touch you?" Gojo asks with the voice of an angel. "To heal you a little before your body can do the rest?"

I want to nod. Maybe I do. I'm not sure, so I say "yes" just in case. "Touch me everywhere," I add, and it makes the angel laugh.

"Oh, you're so going to regret this in the morning," he says, and I can see him shaking his head with a wide smile on his lips.

Two warm hands touch my ribs, making me flinch because there's a sudden pain rushing through my torso. Until it's gone. Two fingers touch my temple, the throbbing in my head stops, and my eyes fall shut at the relief.

"Now you can fall asleep," Gojo says, zipping my jacket again and covering me with a blanket until I feel warm and comfortable and absolutely, utterly, beyond-comparison exhausted.

He vanishes from my field of vision, and it immediately makes me panic. "No," I moan in agony. "No, don't go. Where are you going?"

He appears again, his grinning angel-face hovering above me. "I'm right here," he assures me, his fingertips softly touching my wrist. "I'll be right on the chair in front of the bed. I'm not leaving."

I feel like crying, but I don't know why. "Don't go," I say again, and somehow, my fingers find the strength to hook themselves into his. "Stay."

"I am," Gojo promises.

Frustration overwhelms me while my mind is struggling to stay awake for just one more moment until he understands what I'm saying. "Stay here," I beg.

The blue eyes widen with realization, but the angel is shaking his head. "I can't," he says. "You're exhausted, and you don't know what you're saying. Besides, you'll kill me tomorrow if you wake up next to me." He's smiling again, but it's different.

I want to argue, but there's only so much I can do. With my fingers still entangled with his, I'm pulled underwater and sink so deep into unconscious sleep that I don't even care if he's in bed with me or not.