The Strongest | ɢᴏᴊᴏ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ

Chapter 35

Being a teacher and living on school grounds means that I can't afford to sleep in because I can never know when I might be needed. So even though I spent half the night talking to Gojo on the phone until we were both too tired and decided to go to sleep, I'm up at eight and getting ready for breakfast. Shoko is waiting for me in the hallway, and when she sees me, she raises an eyebrow.

"Bad night?" she only asks, and it's enough to mortify me. I frantically try to flatten my hair and look acceptable, but apparently, it has nothing to do with my hair. It's my face, the dark circles under my eyes, and the tired expression I'm wearing.

"What were you doing?" Shoko asks on our way to the cafeteria.

I'm not sure if I want to tell her. If I want to share with her or anyone what I was doing last night. Gojo and I weren't doing anything forbidden, and it's not like our conversation was dirty or anything. We were talking about everything else, to be honest. He told me more about his past few days and missions, and I told him about mine. We joked, and I laughed so hard I thought Shoko must have heard me. It was nice. Calm. It was everything I ever wanted from a person. He was just being the same annoying, irritating, hot Gojo, but a little different.

Just as I want to tell her that I couldn't sleep, which is not quite a lie but not the whole truth either, Ijichi runs into us in the hallway right in front of the cafeteria. "There you are!" he says to both of us, clearly out of breath as he's been looking for us.

I frown. "I didn't sleep that long," I start to protest, but the man waves off, and I fall silent.

"Just follow me."

Shoko and I look at each other. "Both of us?" she asks, and I grin. It's a reasonable thing to ask, considering the fact that I've been asked to see Yaga multiple times in the past week alone, and Shoko almost never has to.

Ijichi is already walking when he says, "Yes. Both of you," over his shoulder, and we follow him. Against my expectations, he doesn't take us to Yaga's office, but instead to the room we often have conferences in. He slides the door open to let us in and -

I stop dead in my tracks. All of the sorcerers, including Gojo, are looking up at us, and his smile is bigger than Utahime's and Mei Mei's combined. Shoko and I glance at each other for just a second before we sit down, me trying my very best to ignore Gojo's piercing look. His eyes are hidden behind the blindfold, but I can still feel them on me, and it's making me shift in my seat.

At least until the two principals get up and address all of us, gaining my full attention. I think I know what this is about: the "suspicious activity" Utahime mentioned. And, indeed, Yaga tells us that there have been "happenings" that we need to put a stop to.

"We waited until we had all the information we needed to stop what's going on," Gakuganji says, and I notice that everyone is getting restless. What is going on?

"An organization has come up out of nowhere and wants to harvest the powers of a Jujutsu sorcerer," Yaga finally tells us.

The room immediately fills with murmurs. My eyes widen, and I look at Shoko, but she's already exchanging a look with Gojo before shrugging and turning to me, too. Her expression mirrors my shock. What does that even mean, harvest our powers? Is that possible? Apparently so, otherwise the two principals wouldn't look this stressed.

"They will dress and act like sorcerers around you," Yaga tells us, his voice loud and serious, "but they don't possess the power of seeing curses or fighting them. Their cursed energy is too low, like any normal human's."

"How do we find them?" Utahime asks.

"We won't," Gakuganji replies, making me frown. "They will come on their own."

The briefing goes on a little while longer until it turns into a discussion and then into almost an argument. I can feel Yaga's eyes on me, and I'm sure he's very happy now to see that Gojo and I are arguing with everyone but each other. We're not even looking at each other either, so this doesn't really prove any change for the better.

Once the shock and discussion of the news wears off, everyone heads back to their work. I should go, too, because I know my students will be waiting for me, but then I see Gojo standing in the hallway and couldn't care less about my students. Yaga told him that he could stay here now because it's Thursday, and he was going to call him back on Friday evening anyway, and we needed him here, so... he's here.

I slide up to him and put on a weak smile. Why does this feel so weird? We spoke so much while he was in Kyoto, but now it feels like no words want to come out of my mouth. I realize that we haven't seen each other in this setting yet since we left for our weekend. We haven't stood in these halls together without shouting or fighting. This is probably why it's so hard to say something that's not mean.

"So. You're back," I finally settle on.

Gojo smiles and nods. "I'm back."

I try not to smile back when I say, "Don't look so happy about that. It seems as if we're being hunted."

He shrugs. "I'm on classroom duty next week." Meaning he'll be here with me next week, which means we'll both be here together unless I get sent on a mission, which means Yaga is trying to give us a chance at redemption.

But I don't let myself show how excited I am. All I do is shrug as if I'm super casual about this. "Oh. Well, at least you're safe here," I tease him a little with a sly smirk.

And Gojo reacts exactly as I thought he would: scrunching his nose in disapproval. I'm sure he's also frowning behind that blindfold. "I don't need the safety of those walls to protect me."

"I know," I say more seriously. "But it's still nice to know that they're there."

Gojo looks at me and tilts his head to the side. "I guess I know what you mean."

My body is set on fire at the sound of his voice when he says those words. Does he mean he's glad I'm safe here, too? What does he mean? What do I do? Do I say something? My brain suddenly reminds me that I make him not as miserable, and I lose all my ability to speak. All Gojo does is smile down at me from his six foot something, and I lift my chin to look right back at him, which I shouldn't have done.

Now, there's this tension between us that's only been there in front of room 307 at night. Never here, in those hallways, in this building, on school grounds. Never where other people are, where they can see us even just standing here, talking. Never where the other people would care.

But I know nothing is going to happen. I just know. I've known it before, too, that whatever happened once doesn't mean it will happen again. And if so, it will mean probably just as little as the last time. For him. No, but... I'm the only woman this has happened with. Does this mean that only my emotions were running high after that mission, and he really wanted it? Or maybe I've been lying to myself all this time, and I wanted it, too. Maybe the high emotions only got me there faster, but they must have been working with some emotions already there. Was Shoko right? Have I wanted to do this ever since our first and last mission?

So many thoughts are in my head all at once, and only a few seconds of silence pass until Gojo's lips curve into a soft smile that I haven't seen there yet. It's brand-new, and my brain goes quiet just for the sight of it. Fuck. The emotions have been there, haven't they?

"Go," Gojo says to me, grinning suddenly. "Go to your students."

I narrow my eyes at him. "You dare using my own words against me?"

He laughs, throwing his head back. "I do. I'm reckless like that."

Together, we head to the classrooms, but halfway there, we stop at the same time and look at each other. Gojo manages to speak before me. "They don't know that we don't hate each other anymore, do they?" I want to disagree when he adds, "Except for Shoko."

So she told him about that, too. Or has he told her himself? Either way, she knows, and no one else does, so I nod.

"Then why don't we mess with them a little?"

I grin despite the fact that Yaga told me one more disturbance means my job on the line. "My thoughts exactly." But the thought is just too tempting.