The Binding Vow of Lazarus

Chapter 3

"So why not talk to me like, I dunno, a normal person?!" She huffed, a hand landing on her hip. Her shirt was oversized too, the fabric bunching under her palm.

"I mean yeah I could have done that I guess," Satoru said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, "I dunno."

There was a long awkward silence. Even the birds had stopped chirping, gone silent as if they were listening in to Satoru while he fumbled this introduction so hard. Neither of them said anything for so long that trying to break the silence had become the weird part.

Satoru cleared his throat, pushing up his round sunglasses with his fingers, "Alright, let's start over."

"What?!" She yelped, "You can not be serious? After all of that?!"

"I'm Satoru Gojo," he said with a smile, ignoring her outburst, "And you are?"

She finally let the mop handle slide down in her palm, resting the end on the ground. She leaned into it a bit, cocking her head to one side as she kept her eyes fixed on him. Her eyes were partially hooded, the forest green color of her irises catching the afternoon sunlight as she looked him over.

"Sarah," she said cautiously.

"... Just Sarah?" He said, probing her to continue, "No... Last name?"

"Nah," she said with a shrug as if that was the end of it.

"Ooookay...." He said, "Weird, but I've heard weirder I guess," He took a step closer to her as he bent forward to get a better look at her, "You're not from around here though, yeah? Are you foreign?"

"Yeah," she said cautiously, raising her brow, "I'm American."

"Ah," he said, "Thought so. Your Japanese is really fluent though. I can't even really hear much of an accent."

"Yeah well, I was raised here at the school," she said, adjusting her posture.

His eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. Raised here? That's not what Yaga had told him. He hadn't been specific about when she got here, but he would have mentioned that for sure. Was she lying? She didn't appear to be. As far as he could tell she was genuine.

"Right," he said with a small nod, "So uhh... Are you going to try to be a sorcerer?"

"Hmm? Yeah, next year," she said, brushing some of her hair behind her ear.

"Even with like... No cursed energy?" He asked, pointing at her, "You'd probably be better off as a window or something. You'll get killed day one being that weak."

"Excuse me?!" She snapped, "What the hell is your problem?!"

"I'm just saying," Satoru shrugged, "You're like... Suuuuper weak."

She gritted her teeth, her fist clenching at her side. She inhaled before she shouted, "Yeah, well you're a big fucking asshole!" And turned on her heels and stormed away.

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Satoru dropped his head on the headrest in the backseat of the car. His arms were crossed and his face was twisted in a permanent scowl. He was still irritated by his interaction with Sarah the day before, and his foot was tapping the back of Yaga's seat incessantly as his thoughts wandered back to that whole disaster.

Big fucking asshole? Seriously?! Most people didn't like him, sure, but no one had ever dared to insult him like that. He hadn't even said anything untrue! It's not like she couldn't understand that, right? She had to know she wasn't going to be a good sorcerer. It was obvious, right?

Then she just walked away from him too! And she didn't change his bedsheets either! She just left them in the bed with a note that said, "Oh sorry, too WEAK."