───

❝darling we're heaven and hell❞

"m-miss death?"

"she's death, the empress of curses, you uneducated brat!"

reina was quite amused at the mouth and eye that had popped out from the boy's cheek, as even though she knew itadori was sukuna's vessel, she didn't expect for such weird incidents.

and thankfully the coffee shop was closed on weekends, hence why there was no one to overhear their ridiculous conversations.

"long time no see, sukuna. it seems that you're doing well", reina slightly teased, to which the mouth had frowned as even he, did not dare to speak back.

itadori gasped.

"he...HE DIDN'T TALK BACK TO YOU?!"

"darling, he knows his place unlike some others", reina slightly smirked, to which sukuna had huffed as he had firsthand experience being undeniably wrecked by the woman in a fight many centuries ago.

"so how old are you?", itadori asked, to which kugisaki had stepped on the boy's foot, as you never asked a woman for her age.

"well how old do I look?"

"no older than twenty-six", kugisaki sweetly replied, as she tried not to trigger the curse.

"honestly flattered, but I've been around since the beginning of times", reina sighed, taking a bite of angel cake as kugisaki and itadori shook with disbelief.

fushiguro glanced over at his sensei, who was also enjoying the cake as if this were some normal occurrence for the both of them.

"so...you don't plan on destroying the world or something?", itadori asked.

"now why the hell would you ask her that?!", kugisaki harshly whispered.

reina smiled.

"as of currently...no, but if my human desired so, perhaps I will".

the three students froze as gojō simply chuckled.

"oh my, already under my spell? I guess I really am the charmer", gojō self-praised.

"unfortunately, you're not as interesting as I hoped you'd be, so your conceited assumption is actually incorrect", reina denied.

fushiguro was least to say shocked at how bold and well-versed the woman was with her words.

granted, she is as old as time itself.

"ouch! you're merciless", gojō playfully pouted.

"quite ironic coming from the sorcerer that's exterminated the majority of my kind without another thought", reina smiled.

"excuse me miss reina, but it's already four", mimiko informed.

"I see...thank you mimiko".

"huh? what's at four?"

"this shop opens at four", reina replied.

"but I thought you don't open on weekends", kugisaki confusingly said.

reina's eyes held a twinkle of mischief.

"at least not for humans", she responded, to which it was as if that was the cue, as the door to the café had swiftly opened, with the bell chiming and curses of all kinds trotting in.

however, they immediately froze upon seeing gojō satoru.

"don't mind them. proceed as usual", reina commanded, to which the curses had awkwardly wobbled towards their usual seats as a fly head — a pink little glob with wings — had fluttered over to its empress.

"is something of the matter?", reina asked, to which the fly head had blinked twice as it pulled out a small note for reina.

"ah, thank you for your service. you may go enjoy your time here now", reina smiled as the curse flew away, joining his friends as the three students were beyond confused and bemused.

"not to be rude, but as much as I enjoyed this...date, I have an important matter to attend to", reina said, as she politely excused herself, leaving gojō with his students at the café.

"what just happened?", itadori breathed out.

"ugh, I can't believe she's a curse", kugisaki whined.

"I knew something was off about her", fushiguro commented.

"gojō-sensei, are you okay?", itadori asked, looking at the slightly dazed shaman.

"am I really not interesting?"

"huh?"

gojō abruptly stood up as he left his students, making them wonder what the hell was wrong with their sensei.

nevertheless, the three stayed and finished the angel cake as they couldn't let such a delicacy go to waste.

gojō stood out quite a bit, despite trying not to for once in his life.

the white-haired male had girls and even a few guys gossiping about him as he strode by with his lamppost legs.

the shaman raised a brow as he watched reina enter a fancy restaurant to go pick up some neatly packaged food.

the girl then held a bottle of wine and two champagne glasses as gojō wondered if she was just going to chug it all by herself.

reina then sighed as she halted in her footsteps, sitting on a bench of some random park as she checked her watched: 5:34 p.m.

"do you care to join me for an early dinner?", the woman asked.

most would've thought that was woman was either talking on the phone or to air, but surprisingly, a presence was soon beside her.

"observant I see", gojō stated.

"red wine?", reina asked, to which gojō had picked up the glass, watching as the curse had poured a small amount, letting it fill up to the lower half of the glass.

"there's three boxes. one's fettuccine alfredo and the other's farfalle with peas, salmon, and a dash of lemon juice", reina explained.

"and what about the third one?"

"that's for someone else. now which one do you prefer?"

"the third one", gojō grinned, to which reina had smiled as she handed him the third box.

upon opening it, the male wasn't sure whether he was disappointed that he had been slightly played with or that it was the farfalle with peas and diced up salmon.

"I thought you'd prefer fettuccine", reina said as she switched with gojō, who was quite entertained by the curse's witty remarks.

"I thought the queen of—"

"empress", reina corrected. "sukuna's the king, but I, am the empress".

gojō hummed.

"so the queen of curses likes to spend her time opening a café and acting like a human", gojō observed, obviously trying to tick the woman off.

but reina only softly chuckled.

she had lived long enough to know that the first one to get mad over such frivolous things — such as name calling — is the loser.

and quite frankly, she'd be a fool to let gojō get to the best of her.

"I do things I find interesting. however, I can't say the same for you", the woman said as she elegantly sipped her wine and took a bite of her pasta with the given utensils.

"oh? how so?"

"what's your purpose, gojō-san? to just exorcise curses as they continue to birth from negative human emotions? I sense no drive from you, and that's why you don't intrigue me", reina said as she stood up, packing the rest of her dinner away as she left gojō sitting there.

"what about your wine glass?", he called out.

"keep it, and consider it as a parting gift", reina waved, hoping to never meet the man again.

however, she knew deep down that they probably would, despite how detached she was from him.