Fragility (Jujutsu Kaisen)

~ Chapter 16 ~

Then, she suddenly returned to the moment the spirit was leaping at her. All her previous vines were still intact and stabbed into the walls. She looked around, surprised, and stumbled backwards, making her trip over her vine. The cursed spirit was quick to latch onto the girl's shoulder, forcing a scream up her throat as she struggled to get the curse off. 

She kicked and clawed at the air with yells and grunts until she finally grabbed hold of a vine. She quickly forced it to morph and stabbed the vine through the curse, which dislodged its teeth from her shoulder. It disappeared, and she tried to compose herself as her chest rose and fell rapidly. The scratching noise returned but wasn't as loud, voices slowly filled the air. Words that made her go cold. 

"Remember to get a blood sample..." A whisper passed her ear as though the man was again next to her. Sachiko flung her head around, trying to find the voice's origin. She could feel the pressure in her chest building up more and more. 

"Sachiko!" The scream of her old caretaker echoed throughout the room. The image of Renho's lifeless body entered her mind. The pressure got stronger. Her head felt lighter and lighter as the scream kept echoing around her. 

The sound of her skin ripping and the cracking of her bones filled the air. Tears began to stream down her face as she clawed at her skin, trying to stop them from cutting her wrists. Her nails began to turn red from the build-up of blood under them. The only marks on her wrists were self-inflicted. Suddenly, it went silent, and the light turned bright, making the walls almost seem white. Her sniffs were the only sounds that remained. 

She stood up carefully, her legs wobbling underneath her weight. "Sachiko, how many times have I told you?! You must be perfect!". This was a memory, one that she had suppressed long ago. Her grandmother's voice ran through her head as small blood stains began to appear on the white floors and walls. Puddles, footprints and the wall were decorated with handprints. "You cannot go out in that garden again. You are covered in leaves and dirt. That is not perfection."

"I do not care about your stupid love of gardens. You are a Chiyo child. You will be our legacy. To think such an idiot inherited not only our family's blessing but her curse aswell. You were meant to be his, but he had other plans for you." 

"Shut up! You are consistently awful, and I'm done." 

A belt's cracks and a child's screams filled the air. Sachiko gripped her shirt as she tried to calm herself. This day, she had been locked in the white room for twenty-four hours after being found in the gardens after playing with one of the worker's children. Her hair was dishevelled with leaves, and her white floral kimono was dirt-covered. 

Her grandmother had been under a lot of stress, and Sachiko's disobedience had been the catalyst for her breakdown. Twenty minutes of pure agony as her Grandmother hit her feet and buttocks with her cane until the girl was barely conscious on the floor. She still had light scars that only Yui and Gojo's parents knew about. She knew the day that Satoru would find out was slowly approaching. 

Sachiko glanced around the white room and saw the puddle in the corner of the room where she laid for hours, unable to move. When she was finally allowed out, she was taken straight to the infirmary, and she was told that her Grandmother had gone away for business for a few weeks. The staff's treatment of her never changed, and their desire to fulfil Fumiko's wishes was as strong as always. 

She closed her eyes as she finally found the ability to slow her breathing. The room returned to its original state, and the cursed spirit stared at her from across the room. She took a few seeds and allowed them to slip between her fingers. Within a minute, she stared down at the dust that had formed from its figure. The room became a basement, and natural light flooded it. 

"Sachiko, are you alright?" Satoru's voice called from above. She glanced up, and he stared down at her through his glasses. She nodded and walked back towards the hole. Satoru reached down and pulled her up. He frowned at the scratches down her arms and the bite mark in her shoulder, the tear stains that ran down her cheeks"You got pretty beat up." 

"Nothing I couldn't handle," She joked with a smile as they exited the building. She stared up at the barrier that kept the non-sorcerers from seeing their work. They would never know the pain that the Jujutsu world kept them from, "How long was I in there for?" 

"Only about fifteen minutes. I was giving you twenty before I came to rescue you." He said as he released the barrier and their assistant stood on the other side of the bedside of the car. He greeted the pair, and they slid into the back seat. She glanced at Satoru who was flicking through his phone and that his wallpaper was a picture of her and Suguru when they went for a walk recently. 

"I felt like I was in there for a lifetime." She commented as she turned to look out the window. Satoru glanced at her and placed his hand on her thigh. Her lips turned up at the side as she placed her hand over his.