The Strongest | ɢᴏᴊᴏ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ

Chapter 44

Frantically, I scramble out of Gojo's bed and search for my underwear. He's only lying there, hands behind his head, watching me panic. I still hate him sometimes. Especially when I see the amusement in his face and the laughter on his lips. When I'm dressed only in pants and bra, I stem my hands into my hips and glare at him.

"Get dressed," I snap, tossing him his jacket. "If we get called at this hour, it must be something important."

"Or not." Gojo shrugs.

I sigh and put my jacket on, then walk over to the bed. I lean down to him, my nose softly touching his. "Please," I whisper, closing my eyes. "I don't want to go there without you."

Gojo holds me with his fingers at my chin and pulls me into a kiss. I melt into it, but it only lasted for a second before he pulled away and nodded. "I'll hurry."

We show up to the teacher's room fully dressed, and only when I see the stares from the others, who are all dressed in pajamas (!), do I realize our error. They're all dressed appropriately for this time of night. Gojo and I, however, both show up together, wearing the same things we wore hours ago. When we sit down next to Shoko, she stares at us with wide eyes.

I don't have the patience for that. "Look away," I say, maybe a bit too harshly. "I'm sure there's more important things going on than our outfits."

"We'll talk about this later?" she asks.

Turning my head to look at her, I nod. "Later," I assure her with a smile.

Yaga claps his hands. "Everyone here?" he asks, and after an unanswered second, he continues, "Good. Aikawa and Yamazaki didn't arrive back."

I knew it! They should have been back hours ago, but for anything under two hours, we don't worry. There could have been complications, or they found someone in need. But anything over two hours is cause for concern. Nothing goes wrong for more than two hours that they will return from.

"Some of our windows found their residuals, so I'm sending a rescue team out to get them. I want all of you back here with Yamazaki and Aikawa."

And I know he means dead or alive. Whatever we can find. As long as it's all of us. I'm not worried, though, when I look at Gojo. He's already tying his blindfold around his eyes, getting ready. A smile crosses my lips, and as if he felt it, he turns his head to me. We look at each other for a moment before Yaga continues to give us the details of where we have to go and what we might be up against.

"Don't let them fool you," he reminds us. "They'll present themselves as sorcerers who are searching for our men as well, but you here are the only sorcerers who are being sent out."

We nod. As I look around the room, I smile reassured. I know these people here like the back of my hand. They're friends by now, some even family, and I won't let a fraud get into my head. Yaga sends us off, and we all get up and ready to gather outside.

Shoko isn't coming, so we have to say our goodbyes in the hallway. I hug her, and she hugs me back even though she's not a big hugger. "Come back, yes?" she demands. "I need to hear about this situation of yours." She nods with her head over my shoulder.

Turning around, I see Gojo talking to Yaga, and I smile at Shoko. "Everything," I promise. "And I'm really not worried. I'll beat him this time."

Shoko laughs, then gives me a little push. I really appreciate it because otherwise I probably wouldn't have left so soon. I would have stood with her for a few more minutes, and I would have hated myself for putting her before two of our colleagues.

But I make it outside even before Gojo does, and I stand with Nanami while we wait for him, and then Takeru, to join us. My nerves are going crazy. There's eight sorcerers standing here in the darkness, me included, and we're all ready to find and rescue two of our own. As Gojo steps next to me, I can feel the back of his hand brushing mine, and sparks rush through me.