Temporal Paradox - Suguru Geto x OC

Chapter 14

"It's probably a jujutsu trait," Satoru concluded his words with a wave of a finger. His words turned muffled when he stuffed another piece of dango in his mouth. "An innate gift like my Six Eyes."

Suguru let out a small sound of bewilderment before his best friend continued with a huff.

"Honestly, I don't even know if you can call it a gift. Since she can just ignore her body's warning signs, she'll get injured one of these days and die without even realising she's dying."

Sighing softly, Suguru straightened his gaze towards the flight of stairs they were currently climbing. He could empathise with Satoru's annoyance. After all, he and Shoko too, were feeling the same.

While she did lack an aptitude for jujutsu (even though she was a special grade), they all agreed that their senior was not incompetent in any way. In fact, it even felt uncomfortable to admit that she was far more reliable that she had let on.

But to Suguru, there was something rather paradoxical in the way she saved people. And it amazed him just as much as it worried him.

"Honestly, I wouldn't even be surprised if she actually wants to die. She looks desperate to, even."

Suguru took in Satoru's words for a second, his face thoughtful.

"Desperate? Is that so?" he muttered as they approached the last torii gate into their school.

Despite the dry, sardonic voice with which their senior spoke, he thought she was rather expressive. Her eyes, especially, would say a lot more than her mouth did.

Even so, to think that their senior would make such an expression...

"It's hard to imagine."

To these words, Satoru only hummed absentmindedly. His lips pursed as though he wanted to say something... but in the end, he kept his silence.

"But she wasn't injured on her last mission with me..." Suguru reached into the plastic bag in his hand before pulling out a bottle of ramune. "That was last Tuesday, I think..."

○○○

Torako's face crinkled, jaw stretching into a long yawn. She exhaled a light groan, pinching the bridge of her nose to stay awake.

From the corner of his eye, Satoru glanced at her curiously. This person had been yawning for the last ten minutes already. If he were to count, this would probably be her fifteenth one ever since they got into the car. Just when did she sleep last night?

They were both briefed about their mission during yesterday's evening, so she should've known to sleep enough for today. Satoru himself even made sure to limit his late-night Digimon watch session to only five episodes.

"Did you even sleep last night, Murakami?"

Torako's eyes - heavy with sleep - narrowed into crescents. She hummed, answering, "Of course, I did. I prioritise slacking over everything, after all."

"Eh... Shoko did say you were quite loud last night. Busy tinkering?"

'Why did he word it like that?'

Torako inhaled sharply, straightening her back. "Uhhh... maybe? I'm just putting Geto's berry project on hold for now. I'm working on something else. I figured... it'd be useful."

"You look excited."

A quiet laugh sounded from her lips, and she pulled her gaze away from the window to look at him. She didn't even realise that she had been smiling until her junior pointed it out. "Oh, really?"

"If only you are this enthusiastic about not dying."

"Agh..." Exasperated, Torako groaned and rolled her head back against the head rest. "You've got it wrong. I don't want to die."

Satoru cackled loudly. For some reason, he really wanted to punch his senior in the face.

"Is that so?! Is that so?! Nice one, Senior! I almost believed you there!"

"Ha." A toneless laugh. "It's part of the job description, what can I do?"

"Is that the excuse you gave you to everyone else too-?"

"It's funny," she cut him off quickly, a strangely serious expression washing over her face. "Have you seen Hunter x Hunter? There's this character... 'Killua', who looks exactly like you. I think it's crazy. It's like he's your twin."

Satoru tried to keep himself in control, although his legs shook with an almost obsessive desire to kick her out of the moving car.

If his senior didn't want to talk that much then she should've just said so...

"What, you don't agree?" Torako asked at the sight of the empty smile he gave her.

○○○

The conversation ended a while after, and with the silence that followed, Torako's mind suddenly became occupied with thoughts of her mysterious "friend". The person hadn't said anything for many days now and their silence was making her rather anxious.

As inconspicuously as possible, Torako leaned closer against the window and pulled her phone out.

Agent Smith: Build as much pain tolerance as possible. It'll be convenient for when you eventually use your cursed technique. Make it so you won't even flinch if your eyeballs were gouged out.

When she remembered that particular message, Torako's brain felt incredible pain.

'Convenient... Yeah, right.'

She sincerely believed that the request was made out of pure sadism. Indeed, it must be it. After all, her shikigami alone was already strong enough to exorcise at least Semi-Grade 1 curses, therefore there was truly no need for all of this self-destructive behaviour! Torako could say for certain that she was not an M! In fact, she was afraid of pain more than anything!

'Damn you, Bontan. Just how evil did you become that I have to invest this much effort into saving you?'

Torako thought over it some more, her jaw tightening.

'But it's still hard to believe that time travel actually exists.' She scrolled through their messages, eyes rereading over and over, as if in disbelief. 'That would make our reality a branch timeline... but how are they contacting me from another dimension? I'd love to meet this person just to ask how it works...'

Her phone vibrated in her hand.

Agent Smith: Quantum entanglement, perhaps?

There they were again! How creepy! Not only could they hack into her phone from another dimension, but also had her under constant surveillance! This was exactly how scientists treated their lab rats!

'This sadistic bastard! What if I get a heart attack one day?! I'm too young to die!'

Torako: Scare me one more time and I'll change your name to 'S. Bucko'.

That was a lie, of course. Torako intended to change it right away, regardless of whether they complied to the threat or not. However, just as she was about to click on Agent Smith's name, the car came to a stop.

The female driver, with her hazel brown eyes, looked at them through the rearview mirror. She declared, "We're here, you two."

And it was in front of a large fabric shop.