Mirror Eyes & Bright Blue Skies | Jujutsu Kaisen

Ⅴ. Later

[A/N: Here's a design of Ikuko I sketched the other day. I had a few ideas of what she should look like bouncing around my head, but I think I've settled on this one. I hope y'all like it!]

Apparently to Gojo, "later" did not mean today. Dinner time rolled around and passed, and by the time the light had stopped filtering through the talisman paper on her glass doors and she had to get up and flip the lights on, Ikuko determined she'd probably been forgotten. That, or something horrible had happened to the white-haired man.

Ikuko preferred the former option to the latter, and as soon as the latter option had popped into her brain, right around the time her stomach had started growling, she'd taken to pacing the floor of her room. Broken rib or no.

What if that cursed object attracted something even worse than the snake curse? she thought, worriedly biting her nails, What if that "summons" from earlier was some sort of emergency? If Gojo-san's in danger right now... it's my fault, isn't it? If only I'd left the box alone...

But she slapped that thought from her head before it could take root. Quite literally. Her cheeks still tingled, and were probably red, from the hands which still rested on them. Anger burned slowly in response to her guilt like dry kindling as images of the poor funeral home worker, choking under the snake-creature's coils, flashed through her mind.

Curses don't care. They'll hurt people whether you interfere or not.

That reassurance lasted about an instant before the guilt and worry returned, only this time she'd added anger to the mix. As she had nothing to distract herself with, her pacing grew to such a worrying intensity she even started to worry that she was going to rub the varnish off the wood flooring. Oh, and she supposed her rib started to complain as well. Such was her mental state that Ikuko had almost completely forgotten about her hunger when there came a knock at the door.

Her pacing came to an abrupt stop, and she hastily pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and plastered a smile to her face, "Y-yes? Come in?"

The door opened and in stepped a younger-looking girl with black hair and glasses carrying a tray of food. Disappointment twinged at the back of Ikuko's throat, but she tried to push it down. Other, more pressing matters demanded her attention, such as the disapproving aura dripping from the black-haired girl and the answer Ikuko would need to get out of her concerning Gojo's well being.

"I've brought your food," the girl said plainly, a scowl on her face.

Ikuko bowed slightly, "Thank you."

The girl walked past her to set the tray down on top of the nightstand, but Ikuko could tell the girl was keeping watch of her out of the corner of her eyes.

"Um, is Gojo-san alright?" Ikuko blurted out, unable to hold the question back any longer.

Her eyes narrowed, "And why do you need to know that?" The girl's black eyes were hard as they probed her, and Ikuko felt as if the girl was sifting through her soul, searching for something.

"Well," Ikuko started, haltingly, "I was expecting Gojo-san to be the one bringing my food, since he said so earlier... So I guess it just made me a little worried."

The girl stared at her in silence for several awkward seconds, causing Ikuko to fidget, until finally she sighed and extended her hand, "Don't worry about Gojo-sensei. He's just disappeared on one of his missions. The name's Maki, by the way."

Apparently, whatever Mak had found within her soul, it was satisfactory.

Ikuko smiled in relief, "Just Maki-san?" she asked, reaching out to shake the hand.

"Yes."

Ikuko waited half-a-beat for an explanation, but Maki-san just stared at her.

"Oh, alright then... Well, my name is Nishimura Ikuko. It's nice meeting you."

Maki nodded sharply, then dropped Ikuko's hand, as if it had suddenly erupted in flames.

"Nishimura-san," Maki pursed her lips, that same searching look in her eyes again, "Why are you here?"

Having assumed that Maki would already know, Ikuko was a little taken aback, "Why am I here? I suppose it's because Gojo-san brought me here for medical attention after I got attacked by a... curse thing."

"Yes, yes, I knew that. But why are you still here? You're just going to trust everything we tell you and wait around patiently in this sketchy looking room? For all you know, we're an evil cult."

"Oh..."

To be honest, Ikuko hadn't thought about it. Her brow furrowed, and she absentmindedly walked over to sit on the edge of her bed as she racked her brain, going over her feelings and actions over the past several hours.

"Well, I mean, I owe Gojo-san my life... And I don't have any reason so far to not trust him, especially after he went through all the trouble of helping me..."

"You're stupid."

Ikuko blinked and tried to smile away the sudden tension, "Haha, what?"

"Something about your smile reminds me of one of my classmates when he first got here. It's kind of sad, actually."

But Ikukp barely had time to process what Maki had said when suddenly the door burst open and a large... panda walked into the room.

"Maki-san!" it... he? said, "We came to make sure you weren't being mean to the guest."

Out from behind the panda stepped a boy with platinum-blonde hair, whom Ikuko had not noticed, what with the... panda in the room.

The boy nodded, "Salmon."

Salmon?

She tilted her head in a mixture of curiosity and confusion. What in the world was going on?

The panda and the boy turned toward her, exchanged a look between themselves, and then turned back to Maki.

Finally, the panda huffed, "You said something, didn't you, Maki-san? You can't just go about saying whatever you want to people! The poor lady is injured!"

"I did no such thing!" Maki objected.

The panda turned back toward Ikuko and bowed, "Sorry if Maki-san has said anything insensitive. She overestimates her people skills most of the time. Anyway, I'm Panda, and this is Inumaki Toge. We're all first years here at Jujutsu Tech."

"Tuna Mayo."

Ikuko opened her mouth, an army of questions lined up behind her tongue, but she stopped herself. Although bristling with curiosity, she figured the best option would be to nod and smile and simply say: "Nice to meet you."

The three students stayed until she'd finished her dinner, squabbling a little more over Maki's rudeness, comparing her to someone named Yuta, and periodically asking Ikuko how she was feeling. After a rather loud shout of protest from Maki and a firm response of "chopped katsuobushi!" faded from behind the closed door, Ikuko was finally alone again.

The smile immediately faded from her face as she sighed, allowing herself to fall back onto the mattress as weariness crept over her like a quiet depression. Without even bothering to turn the lights off, she rolled over onto her side and stared at her pillow until her eyelids fell, dragging down her consciousness with them.

About a week passed without much fanfare, and while the banter of Panda, Maki, and Inumaki was slowly growing on her, they tended to skirt around the majority of her questions concerning the school and curses. To make matters worse, Ikuko hadn't set eyes on Gojo since that first morning and was beginning to wonder if by "later" Gojo really meant "never."

That is, until one night, in the middle of the night, when Ikuko woke up to an excessively cheery voice and a face which was unnecessarily close to her own.

[A/N: A quick thank you to everyone for getting this story to over a thousand reads and nearly seventy votes! Everyone's comments have been so kind, and I really appreciate it ^^ 

Anyways, thanks for reading! If you're enjoying the story so far, please consider voting and/or commenting!]