Star Religious Group Headquarters

House of the Children of The Stars

The world of Jujutsu was the worst place to be born in, Hitomi thought as she numbly followed Geto into the headquarters of the Star Religious Group. Bandages covered her shoulders and part of her neck. Shoko had healed her, but there would be permanent scarring. And at this point, Hitomi had stopped caring. Her body was laden with scars. What was one more?

She and Geto walked down the stairs, picking up their pace as they reached large, steel-gray doors. He pushed the door open and she followed inside.

The bright light of the room, the smiling people, the applause...it felt like Hitomi had walked into a nightmare. In front of it all was Gojo, cradling Riko's body in his arms. Hitomi wanted to run to him. She wanted to see Riko. She wanted to do something. But her body just wouldn't move. And Gojo? There were bruises all over his neck and hands. A small one was present beneath his left eye. The crystalline blue eyes that used to be so full of life, looked half-dead.

"You're late, Suguru, Hitomi," Gojo's voice was oddly empty, like he had stopped feeling. "No...I guess you got here fast. There are several Star Religious Group facilities in the city, after all.

"Satoru? Is that you?" Geto's voice held a slight tremble. Hitomi detected the hidden question he wanted to ask. What happened?

The eerie, emotionless expression was nothing like Hitomi had ever seen on Gojo. It deeply scared her. As Gojo reached them, he said, "I see you two already saw Shoko."

"Yeah, she healed me," Geto answered. "I'm fine now." After a moment, his expression fell even further. "No, me being safe doesn't help anything here."

Hitomi's hands trembled as she attempted to reach for Gojo, the keyword being attempted. She put them back down, not knowing how she was going to comfort him. After all, she had not yet found a way to do it for herself.

Gojo's eyes lingered on her for just a second, before he said, "I screwed up. You two aren't at fault."

"Let's just get out of here," Hitomi said. She was teetering on the edge, almost about to lose control and do something to these cultists and their damn smiling faces without any regret.

"Suguru," Gojo looked at Geto. "Should we kill these guys? The way I feel right now, I'd doubt I'd feel anything about it."

"No, there's no point," Geto replied evenly. "It looks like there are only common believers here. The masterminds who know about our world have probably fled already. And unlike with the bounty, they won't be able to talk their way out of this. The organization had problems to begin with. It will be dissolved soon enough."

"No point, huh?" Gojo mumbled. "Does there really need to be any point to it?"

"It's very important that there is," Geto stated. "Especially for a Jujutsu sorcerer."

(But truly...what was the point anymore?)

The water felt ice-cold as it fell over her.

Hitomi had sat in the shower with her clothes and bandages still on. The energy to remove them simply did not exist. All she wanted to do was drown everything. Drown her feelings, which felt like holding the crushing weight of a mountain on her shoulders.

Not even Izuki's presence could offer her comfort. An emotional storm brewed in her heart. Water seeped through her clothes. The silence grew louder.

She welcomed it with open arms.

How long had it been since...everything? Time felt like everything and nothing at the same time. Hitomi felt like she was on the edge of a cliff, waiting to fall over. Her emotions were a mountain crushing her. They were an ocean drowning her.

Hitomi slowly got up from beneath the shower and turned it off. From head to toe, water was dripping down her skin. She exited the bathroom quietly, ignoring how her legs trembled. Not because of the cold. No. But because she was overwhelmed and tired and rest was a hard thing to come by.

In the world of Jujutsu, missions didn't stop. Even if you defeated as many curses as you could, even more popped over. Because of the shortage of sorcerers, they were overworked to the bone. Hitomi had a lot of missions to go on as a semi-special grade sorcerer, but at least she wasn't a special grade like Gojo and Geto.

Those boys had it so much worse. They were out constantly, barely even having the time to rest.

They were all best friends and yet she had barely seen the strongest two around in the past month or in the time that had passed. (She had stopped being able to tell the difference right now)

"I miss them," She mumbled. "I miss them so much."

Hitomi walked over to her cupboard, slowly removing her wet clothes. Drying herself off with her towel, she quickly put on her favourite t-shirt and pajamas. She walked towards her bed and promptly collapsed on it, burying herself into the pillow.

She quietly sighed, closing her eyes for a second. 'I was not going to sleep, that was for sure.'

*

As it turns out, the exhaustion finally caught up with her. Finally.

Hitomi's sleep was without dreams, without nightmares, which meant for her, long, long hours of sleeping. When she finally woke up, nothing had changed. She couldn't see outside her window, because the curtains were drawn. Everything was just the same as it has been before she had closed her eyes.

She reached towards her nightstand, grabbing her phone. She quickly checked the time. Ten hours. Ten. Whole. Hours. Which meant, it would be around four in the morning.

Holy fuck. Hitomi wanted to scream.

She got up from her bed, not even bothering to put on slippers. Ten hours of time, just gone. Ten hours in the grand scheme of things was nothing. But ten hours to a Jujutsu sorcerer were precious. Ten hours of sleep was five hours of training wasted. Ten hours of sleep was hours of conversations with Shoko and with Gojo and Geto just gone.

Loneliness was a curse. And one of the harshest curses there was. 

happy (belated) birthday to my glorious blue-eyed king <33

this chapter was originally supposed to go up on gojo's birthday, but life just got in the way i couldn't post it on time. it is kind of short and sweet and it signals the start of just pure angst. i wish i could say things get better. they probably won't though. but i can guarantee there will be some light hearted moments here and there. 

i hope you enjoyed this chapter. please let me know your thoughts! and as always, comments and votes are super appreciated <33