"I can't believe Yaga-sensei decided it was a good idea to send us on a mission together."

"You and me both, sweets," Gojo replied, twirling around his sunglasses. "You're no fun on missions."

Hitomi rolled her eyes. The mission was...well, she liked to think of it as simple, but it really wasn't. There was a grade 1 curse haunting an abandoned, dilapidated building behind an old hospital and reports from the assistants said the victims of this curse had mostly been young children, who all experienced severe nightmares. Children, she thought, just a few years younger than them and completely in the unknown about the monsters lurking in the shadows. Children, she hoped, who would not be left tainted by this incident.

It was sunset when they finally arrived at the building. The sky was painted in hues of orange, red and yellow and far off into the distance, the sun was slowly retreating.

"Do we need a curtain? I don't see anybody," Hitomi asked, scanning their settings. There was no one around here, not one person in sight. But there was something in the air, something far darker; a clear indication of the cursed energy of the curse they were hunting.

"Just drop one, if you want," Gojo answered with a shrug. "Don't think we need one though."

"I guess."

They stepped inside, only to step into complete darkness. It was like the whole world in front of them had been painted with black ink. Hitomi could barely see a thing. Gojo, with his Six Eyes, could definitely see everything. But at the same time, she couldn't help but wonder...what was so appealing about this place? Why would children want to come here and play?

"I don't get it though," Hitomi said out loud as she pulled out a small torch from her pocket. Turning it on, she shone the light onto Gojo's torso, allowing her to see the silhouette of her mission partner. "Why would these children want to come here? What's so appealing about playing in sheer darkness? There's not even a little light in this place."

Even in this darkness, Gojo's bright, cerulean blue eyes were visible and almost shining. "The mystery, duh," he said, like it was the most obvious thing. "Every kid has explored some sort of abandoned place or the other. The mystery of it all just makes it fun. And sometimes, you could even find cool stuff. Have you never gone exploring before?"

"No," She replied. As she spoke next, her voice started to get low, just like a whisper. "It's not like I had a normal family or childhood."

"Hmm?" Gojo gave her a look. Or at least she thought he did, because after a second, he just turned away.

The conversation died out as they walked further into the darkness. Hitomi's torch shone and at the same time Gojo's Six Eyes did their work. The odd feeling she had detected earlier seemed to grow, the further they walked on. The hallway was almost endless but after a right turn, they stopped in front of a broken wooden door. The glass pane in the center of the door was broken in half. Hitomi activated her cursed technique on her right foot. Taking a light step, she felt her sneakers brush against broken glass.

"Huh," Gojo suddenly said. "I just realised we're walking through what looks like the set of a horror movie. Nice. I hope we see ghosts."

A shiver went down Hitomi's spine. She did not enjoy horror movies at all. "We already have curses to deal with, and now you want ghosts?"

"Ghosts are fun," Gojo grinned as he looked at her.

"You haven't seen Grudge then," Hitomi mumbled.

Stepping forward, she activated her technique once again and touched the door, allowing gravity to push it open without making a sound. Turning to Gojo, she bowed a little and spoke in a mocking tone, "After you, my lord."

"Why, thank you, kind lady," He replied, in an equally mocking tone. But he entered the room first and Hitomi secretly hoped that if there were ghosts, they would haunt him. This room was completely dark too, and no light was coming through the windows. It was like all light had been blocked due to some reason, a reason they both knew was the grade 1 cursed spirit they were hunting.

In this room, that odd feeling from before grew to its maximum. All the hairs on Hitomi's neck were standing up. She knew; without a doubt, she knew this was the place where the cursed spirit must be.

Instinctively, or maybe for the comfort of knowing that there was another human here, she moved closer to Gojo, taking a step so that she was right behind him.

"Gojo, it's here," Hitomi whispered lightly. Gojo hummed in acknowledgement and moved further into the depths of the room.

She, in the meantime, continued to shine her torch in front of her and around the room, trying to pierce through the darkness. She and Gojo split directions; he decided to check things out on the left side, and she did the same on the right side.

The torch light was the only light in the room, shining through and covering a small spot in the darkness.

Suddenly, the light fell on a sleeping figure, and Hitomi gasped. It was a boy, who looked no older than ten. As she stepped close to him, shining the torch on his face, she noticed he was asleep. But his expression was contorted with fear and beads of sweat lined his forehead. She could feel cursed energy emanating from his body, the same energy that filled this room.

"Gojo, come here," Hitomi called out as she crouched down, holding her torch with one hand and reaching to touch the boy's face with the other. "I found a kid."

"What?" Gojo's voice echoed through the infinite darkness. She could feel him walking over, his footsteps a little too loud. "What are you-"

The pale light of the torch caught sight of his feet first. Then, as he also bent down, it fell on his neck. And even now, his cerulean blue eyes continued to glow in the darkness.

"How do we wake him up?" Gojo asked, a little too nonchalant. "We'll be done once we wake him up, right?"

Hitomi gave him a look, which she knew he could see with his Six Eyes. "We'll be done once we exorcise the damn cursed spirit."

"I can sense its energy everywhere. When we walked inside, I think we walked into an incomplete domain."

"And you're telling me this now?"

"Well, it was funny to see how you couldn't seem to understand that."

"Your sense of humor is fucking broken. Broken."

"At least I have a sense of humor. Unlike you."

"Uggh, you are annoying. Seriously, do you even think about what comes through your mouth or do you just ta-"

Hitomi's instincts screamed widely and she turned around, only to find herself staring at two glowing red eyes and a clawed hand taking form in the darkness. She almost wanted to scream, but that thought disappeared. She pulled the kid to herself, cradling him against her shoulder. The cursed spirit hissed, clawed arms raised to attack.

"You talk too much, Hitomi," Gojo said in a plain tone. He slashed his right arm through the air and his cursed energy poured out of his palm. Cursed energy that soon completely surrounded the spirit.

It looked confused, but the confusion would not last much longer. With a snap of Gojo's fingers, the cursed spirit dissipated into nothingness. With it, the darkness also faded, allowing the fading light of the setting sun and the growing light of the room to fall through the windows. Hitomi felt the young boy shift in her arms and she stiffened.

Gently, she set him down on the floor, watching as he rubbed his eyes, trying to fully wake himself up. "Who-who...?"

"Don't worry, kid," Hitomi looked at him with a kind smile, hoping to reassure this young boy in some way. "You just woke up from a bad dream. But it's over now. You're safe."

"The monster is gone?" The boy asked, with tired and confusion filled eyes.

"Yes, the monster is gone," Hitomi replied, still smiling. "I'm going to take you back to your home, alright? Your parents must be getting worried. Is that okay?"

Somehow, the boy nodded. As Hitomi stood up straight and offered a hand to the little boy, Gojo gave her an odd look. But she paid no attention to him. For now, she was glad this mission was done and the kid was safe.

*

Once Hitomi safely escorted the kid to his home, leaving him at his doorstep, she and Gojo walked back to the car, where an assistant was waiting to take them back to Jujutsu High. Night had fallen by then and the sky had turned completely dark. Moonlight and street lamps provided them with light as they walked down the road.

"You know, you have terrible reaction time," Gojo suddenly said. "Are you really that weak now?"

"Don't you dare call me weak," Hitomi fumed. Oh, she really wanted to strike him hard. "And my reaction time is fine. I just wanted to make sure the kid was okay. Unlike you, by the way."

"Kids are annoying," Gojo answered with a shrug.

She rolled her eyes. That was an answer she should have expected. "Well, I guess you'd know 'cause you're one too, right?"

"Huh?!" Gojo looked at her, very annoyed. "What are you even saying? I'm not a kid."

"I find that hard to believe. You are a kid."

"I could kick your ass in a second, you know!"

"Funny. That's exactly what I was going to say."

"You suck, Hitomi. You really suck."

"Only a kid could come up with such a terrible insult."

Being the very mature person he is, Gojo chose to stick his tongue out and make a face at her. Then, he proceeded to walk away very fast, ending their silly little argument with a huff. This was an advantage Hitomi was insanely jealous of; he was tall and his legs were too long, making it easy for him to walk away from certain situations. Like this argument.

Hitomi shook her head with a smile. She definitely got to him just now.

'He's in for a world of pain now.'

hello hello! i really apologise for not updating this for so long. i recently read jjk vol. 0 when i got my physical copy of the book and it just gave me a whole burst of inspiration to write. i had already been prewriting for this, but i've finally written chapter fifteen around two days ago. 

hopefully this fic will have a semi-regular updating schedule! (and of course, each chapter will have a lot of fun and angst. can't forget the angst)

hope you all enjoyed the chapter! please do let me know your thoughts in the comments! <33