08.

her sanctuary

Death has been a silent prayer on Amano Akane's tongue for a long time now. Ever since she was five, ever since she was cursed. It lingered behind her like a persistent bee agonizing you, but it never stings. You just continue to live with the fear that at any given moment the bee will change its mind and sting you, and the poison will seep into your heart and stop it.

Perhaps that was what happened to Akane, an inexplicable heart attack had been fatal as proved. She was dead for almost twenty four hours until suddenly she wasn't anymore.

During the time of her death, Akane knew she wasn't in just any outward place. The cursed energy bombarding her inside her body is a clear sign to her and during her death, she was in close contact with a dark entity. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out who it is.

Sukuna. Ryōmen Sukuna, the King of Curses. Akane has been hunting inside her mind ever since her heart started beating once more, trying to find a hint as to what actually happened.

She gets nothing out of her brain, and the chills alone cause the hair on her body to stand. Sukuna has planned something and she cannot tell what.

"Yo."

Akane moves her eyes from the ground to the white haired man in front of her, his wide grin complete contrast to the tone of his greeting. "Yo." Akane says back, surprising both herself and Gojo.

She can see the outline of eyes widening through his blindfold. "Did my ears deceive me or did I hear Amano Akane use slang for the first time in her life?"

Akane rolls her heterochromatic eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, but you can say that Yuuji is very influential."

Gojo exhales in relief, a hand over his chest. If his eyes were visible, they would have been sparkling. "I really should thank him for teaching you some culture!" He suddenly pulls out his large thumb, practically shoving it on Akane's face. "I approve! You two would make a cute couple!"

Akane's eyes widen, and she feels the blood rush to her cheeks. "What? Stop talking nonsense! We're both your students."

Gojo snickers like a teenager at his student's reaction and pokes her nose. She slaps his hand away. "You said the same thing about Fushiguro. Are you that desperate for me to have a love life?"

"Yes, I am. You're too lonely, Akane." The sorcerer hums in thought. "Well, if I said anything about Megumi I would take it back. My blessings are with you and Yuuji! You even have a red string attached to him, you're practically soulmates!"

"Stop it!" Akane flushes, her cheeks turning hot. Gojo can't help but laugh at her reaction, and the dual haired girl looks away in embarrassment. "Why are you here anyway? Shouldn't you be visiting my clan?"

To the outside world, Akane and Yuuji are still dead. Even their own classmates and the Amano clan don't know that they're very much alive, although they were dead for a few minutes. There are no real explanations for their revival, much less about Akane's death, but Gojo had guessed it had to do something with her curse.

Akane had disagreed with him, remembering how sick she felt on the day of her death. She wasn't herself, her thoughts were erratic and her heartbeat kept racing the entire time for no reason. She kept fainting and losing sense of reality. Her palms were inexplicably sweaty and her breath was ragged.

Akane thinks she had a panic attack back then and she reckons her heart attack had something to do with that. How could something as mundane as a heart attack be jujutsu related?

Gojo acknowledged her logic but still wasn't convinced, and so upon Akane's mother's request, he was going to meet them. They wanted answers for her death and demanded for her dead body, but Gojo and Yaga deflected, saying that Akane had to undergo an autopsy.

It wasn't believable, and Akane is sure that Akito would try to use Hypnosis to get the truth out of Gojo, although it cannot surpass his Infinity.

Not to mention, ever since Akane's cousin- Amano Miyo- defected from jujutsu sorcery and became labeled as a curse user, Gojo hasn't been on good terms with the Amano's.

Akane doesn't know the details of it and never asked him. Even for Gojo, that seemed like a sensitive topic. All she knows for sure is that Miyo and Gojo were old classmates along with Geto Suguru who is now a Special Grade Curse User after defecting too. They were probably close, and the Amano's probably blamed Gojo for what happened with Miyo.

"Yeah, yeah, I am leaving." Gojo huffs dramatically. "I just wanted to tell you to keep an eye on Yuuji."

Akane raises her white brow at that. "Why?"

"Something's happening." Gojo says, his voice solemn. His head turns away from her and he appears to be in a faraway thought. "Higher ups had schemed for Yuuji's death, but not yours. Amano's are falling even deeper to their demise because you're gone and for some reason, the Kamo's are pissed."

Akane looks at him quizzically. "Kamo's? What has this got to do with them?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it can't be good." He looks at her concerned expression and sighs, placing his hand on her head. Akane has gotten used to this gesture now, so she doesn't mind that. "If anything happens, if Yuuji feels the need to be the hero and save people- stop him. I'll handle it."

The dual toned girl is still confused, unable to decipher the true meaning of Gojo's words. Yet, she nods in agreement. She trusts him.

"I won't let anything happen to Yuuji." Akane says. "Never again."

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Yuuji is finally on break after all that training and Akane decides to join him. She finds him in the same lounge in front of the television, watching a movie with wide eyes. She raises her brows- all he did the last few hours was watch movies and oddly enough that's how he decides to spend his break.

Akane merely smiles. She slowly walks towards the couch where he lounged. "Hi."

The pink-head's eyes widen as he looks at the prettiest girl he has ever met, immediately shifting to give her space to sit. His face turns bright red as she chuckles, the sound sending butterflies in his stomach.

Yuuji hasn't forgotten his last words to her- I had a crush on you, ya know? He slaps both his palms on either side of his face at the memory. Why, why did I have to open my big mouth? I mean yeah, I was seconds away from dying and I did die and I did plan on telling it to her some day, but... why did I have to come back alive? That was not the way I planned to ask her out!

Not turning his head, Yuuji's eyes shift to the side at her and finds himself gushing over her amused expression. He inhales, closes his eyes and works on his blank expression before opening his eyes again. "Did sensei go to meet your family?" He asks, wearing a curious expression as Akane perches next to him.

Akane bobs her head. "That's right," She replies. "He just left a few minutes ago. I wonder what they wanted to tell him."

"They're probably just sad." Yuuji guesses, finger on his chin as he contemplates. "They did lose you, after all. I'm sure they all miss you."

Akane scoffs at his assumption, causing the boy to look at her confusedly. "They don't care about me. I'm just a tool to revive the clan's lost dignity."

"Oh yeah, I've always wondered about that." Yuuji admits. "I don't really understand your curse or how it works. Why is your thread connected to Sukuna? And he seems to hate you for no reason, which pisses me off honestly."

Akane's mismatched brows rise. "You don't know about my curse?"

She finds herself surprised when he shakes his head. Everyone knows Akane because of her curse, it's strange to think there was someone who didn't think of her fate when they saw her.

"I was born with too much cursed energy." Akane explains. "Too much. So, my clan thought that my birth was a miracle, that I was meant to save our name. They wanted Amano's name to once again send shivers down everyone's spines like it used to. If not for Sukuna, we would have overthrown the Kamo's and replaced them in the Big Three Clans."

"Sukuna?" Yuuji blinks confusedly. "What'd the bastard do?"

Akane grins at his choice of profanity. "Well, he basically overthrew everyone in my clan. They've hated him ever since- for over a thousand years. Then Mito-sama was born and she was meant to kill him."

Her dual toned eyes peer to the marks underneath Yuuji's eyes, half-expecting it to snap open in sheer red. "She didn't succeed in killing him but she hurt him enough that his own Reverse Cursed Energy failed."

Yuuji's brown eyes widen. "Woah! She must have been a badass like you."

Akane shakes her head incessantly as though even the idea of that being true was ridiculous. "No! I am nothing like Mito-sama was."

"I don't believe that." Yuuji refutes. "I've seen you fight Sukuna. You even took control over Sukuna's mind! You're pretty formidable if you ask me."

"Thank you, Yuuji." Akane says in a sweet tone. "I wish I were as strong as you... mentally. I'm sorry I'm weak." She takes his hand that is much larger than hers and sandwiches it between her palms. "I'm sorry I didn't protect you, even though I promised."

Yuuji squeezes her hand. "It's not your fault, Akane. I should have been strong enough to switch back. But it's alright now! I'm gonna train even harder... and I'll protect you too."

Akane's cheeks turn into a faded shade of pink, although she doesn't realise that. "Alright. Let's protect each other."

The pink-haired boy adorns a wide grin as he bobs his head. He then exhales, scratching the back of his neck. "You know, I was so scared and pathetic when I was fighting that Special Grade." He reveals, and Akane stares at him surprised. "I was thinking, 'Why'd I do that? All this could have been avoided if I didn't eat that finger.' I'm so pissed at myself for thinking that. I don't regret eating that finger! I'm glad that I got to meet you, Fushiguro, Kugisaki and Gojo-sensei. I want to save people. I want to do what my old man wanted."

Akane stays silent, a frown on her lips. A few seconds later, she speaks. "You're not pathetic at all. You're stronger than you think, I've seen it myself."

His brown eyes melt so softly as he gazes at her that Akane's breathing halts. "Thanks, Akane."

No one has ever looked at her that way. He looks at her delicately, cheeks red and a sweet tug on his lips. He looks at her like a butterfly, with beautiful colours adorning her skin and he wants to memorise every shade on her. Like a museum piece frozen behind glass, untouchable but within reach. Close enough to admire its beauty and relish the feeling of being able to turn your gaze on it.

Akane's mind travels back to when they first met, when he had a similar look on his face even though they were in the middle of a heavy battle.

When Itadori took notice of Akane, his brown eyes widened when he took in her appearance. He looked at her with so much innocence, she thought she would melt. A pang hit her chest when Akane thought he found her ugly, but then–

"Pretty..."

She looked at him dumbfounded for two seconds, and felt her cheeks heat up. "Eh?!"

Akane swiftly shakes her head. It's not appropriate to think about that!

"What's your favourite movie, Akane?" Yuuji suddenly asks her.

She blinks in confusion, surprised by the sudden question. "I never watched movies." Akane answers honestly.

Yuuji's brown eyes bulge out. "Really? I expected that, but not even one movie?"

"No."

"Hmmm," His brown eyes narrow as he studies the girl in front of him. "What genre do you think you'll like?"

"I have never watched any, so I wouldn't know."

"Is there any type of movie you wanna watch?" Yuuji's eyebrows rise suggestively, watching her unintentionally chew her lips as she thinks. She doesn't notice him shift closer to her.

"I don't want to watch any horror because I have enough of that in my life," Her heterochromatic eyes meet Yuuji's brown ones. "But... I have always wanted to watch an action film. I have always been curious about how they did it... the CGI and the fight scenes. How do they manage that without hurting the actors?"

Akane swears Yuuji's eyes are sparkling when he takes the remote, immediately turning off the movie he was watching and searching for another one. "I think I know which one we should watch! Akane, do you know Jennifer Lawrence?"

She tilts her head in thought. "I have heard you talk about her a couple of times," Akane admits. "You seem to really admire her."

"Well yeah! She's so hot and-" Suddenly remembering who he's speaking to, Yuuji's cheeks flush embarrassedly, although Akane doesn't seem to register what he said. "I mean, yeah, I admire her."

Akane just smiles. Yuuji resists the urge to leap out of joy, he's seen her smile more times now when they're 'dead' rather than before. "Alright! I think I know which movie I wanna show you!"

The girl's heterochromatic eyes widen with curiosity as her head turns to the screen and Yuuji has never seen that expression on her before. She tilts her head confusedly when she reads the title of the film. "'The Hunger Games'? Is that like a race to see who reaches food first?"

The pink-haired boy laughs heartily at her bewilderment. "Just you watch, Akane! I really want to see your reaction."

Somehow, his expectations put pressure on Akane to pay close attention to the movie, so for the entirety of the hour and half her eyes remained glued to the screen.

And Yuuji's eyes were glued to her.

Akane loved the movie so much that the duo ended up having a movie marathon for the entire trilogy (including two parts of the final part) in one go. Yuuji's training is long forgotten as he tries to gauge every reaction that the girl next to him expressed, because he never saw more than two expressions on her face before today.

He grins to himself. This was a good idea, introducing her to movies.

During the last bit of the final movie, Akane starts to feel a little drowsy. Her eyelids are heavy and they block her vision as they force shut, but she pulls them open. She never expected to be so invested in something that had nothing to do with jujutsu, or her curse, and she is having fun. How often does that happen to her? So she doesn't let herself fall asleep.

As much as she tries, Akane falls asleep eventually. The deep rise and fall of her chest indicates just how exhausted and tired she is from everything. Yuuji, who has been keeping an eye on her this whole time, smiles at the soft scene in front of him, switching off the TV to avoid waking her up.

She really is pretty, Yuuji realizes when he sees the vulnerable side of her. He knows very well that he should probably look away and not stare at her like some creepy stalker, but he can't find it in himself to turn his sight on anything else. Now that he has seen her, he doesn't want to look at anything else. The askew strands of black hair that fall on her face, the slight part of her lips, the scrunch of her mismatched brows as she wanders into the world of dreams- Yuuji doesn't think he had ever seen a more alluring sight.

The boy gasps softly when he notices that her head is about to fall sideways, so he closes the distance between them, carefully placing her head on his shoulder. He takes a deep breath of relief when the disturbance doesn't wake her.

"Unforgivable! Get that filthy bitch away from-"

Yuuji slaps his cheek before the curse inside can spit any more nonsense. "Shut up. She's sleeping."

Surprisingly, Sukuna doesn't utter another word.