Miwa had never been a morning person but sometimes she had to stay up all night and day, a part of training, she had been told. It was the dawn of another such training night when she found a dead body in the school premises. When Miwa took a closer look, she was filled with horror as it was none other than Yoshinobu Gakuganji, the strongest sorcerer and the oldest exorcist among them.
Miwa closed her eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again to see if the dead body disappeared. It did not. The fact that it was not an illusion made her stomach churn and she felt a strong urge to throw up. Although she controlled it and ran to inform Uthahime.
Utahime was as shocked as Miwa, not because the old man died but because he was butchered. As much as she knew, Yoshinobu had no enemies, not the type who could give him such a brutal death.
Immediate meeting was called. All the important and renowned sorcerers were present, and students were also invited. The seating was arranged according to the dignity of the people present. While all the strong and old sorcerers and principals were sitting in the middle of the room, regular teachers sat behind them and students sat at the end. Everyone was present except the first year student, Yujji. Not only his absence but also him being Sukuna's vessel put him under direct suspicion. Though the suspicion didn't last long as he arrived in pajamas with swollen eyes and sleep written all over his face. The discussion had already begun.
The meeting went on for hours and right after Utahime expressed her thoughts of knives or daggers could be the weapons used, Satoru, Yujji, Maki and Toge could only think of one name. Her sudden disappearance started to make sense.
Mio was informed about the murder. She was now certain that Y/N had not gone to visit her parents, she had been hiding from everyone. Mio expanded her search area to nearby cities and villages.
"That sight of blood is still as satisfying as before," Y/N said in a calm voice.
"That was unnecessary," Sukuna exclaimed. "He doubts you more than ever now."
"It doesn't make any difference, he never believed me anyway."
Sukuna raised an eyebrow. "And you still call him your friend?"
Y/N smiled and dropped her head. "To be honest, I stopped believing in friendship a long time ago. But this person changed everything. I kept lying to him but he never did anything to hurt me. When I was arrested, he was suspicious of me, yet he saved me. It was not hard for him to gather evidence. That old man had made up his mind to end my existence that day but Satoru saved me. When everyone hated me and called me a criminal, he tried his best to find the root of all the misery." She paused and looked at Sukuna. "I owe him my life. I can't thank him enough. I can't hate him. Even if he kills me, I can't hate him."
Sukuna was shunned. He felt the words freezing in his throat. Y/N had never talked so positive of someone else, not before him at least. 'Is she in love with him?' he thought.
"No, I am not in love with him, if that's what you are thinking."
Sukuna took a deep breath and looked at her. Was that all that he wanted to know? No, he had a lot more going in his head but one question slithered like a snake that couldn't be stopped. 'Does she love me?' He wanted to ask. He desperately wanted to find out whether she had forgiven him. Only if the words came out.
"Stop looking at me like that. You look scary."
He shifted his gaze to the glittering gateway. She might never love him again, who knew. He wanted to protect her as long as he could. Those sorcerers were cruel as they had been a thousand years ago and Y/N was definitely their target. As long as she agreed to stay in his world, she was safe.
"We need to reach her before she begins her hunt once again," said Mio.
Satoru, Maki and Toge sat in Mio's study room. The feel of the room was that of a small library and wooden shelves, wooden furniture, deep brown wooden window frames, light brown colored window panes and brown curtains were aesthetically mesmerizing. Small plants in the room and tall oaks on the outside added to the pleasing aura. When Mio invited them to her house, no one expected such a pleasing ambience, rather they thought of some dimly lit apartment with every wall filled with photos and pins and newspaper cuttings and sticky notes, just like the detectives in movies were portrayed.
The three sorcerers were admiring the beauty of the place when Mio pulled off a curtain from a wall and revealed a white board as big as a king sized bed. "What do you use this thing for?" Satoru inquired.
"To solve cases of course." She scribbled everyone's names in the different corners of the board. On the top left corner, she wrote Satoru's name. "How did you meet her?" she asked Satoru. "Every single piece of detail is important."
"I met her near a temple in the forest," Satoru answered.
"I said every single piece of detail is important. Take your time and tell me everything."
"Around two years ago, I started collecting Sukuna's fingers. The lead took me to a temple which is built in the middle of the forest. That temple has such strong curse energies that a normal human cannot survive there for more than a few seconds. I was curious how the villagers were living there. So, I talked with some of them and they told me that they worship a god named Sukuna. They said that the god had been protecting them for more than a thousand years. They had been loyal to Sukuna and in return Sukuna kept his curses from causing them any kind of harm. One day, I went to the temple again to open a sealed wooden box that is placed right beside it. As I was trying to open it, I saw a girl in an attire that was totally different from that of the villagers. I stopped her. We had a casual introduction. It was the very first day we met and I observed that she could see the curses just like us and there was not a small hint of fear in her expression. So, I was certain that she had been seeing them for a long time. But I was confused about how she was still alive."
'Temple in the jungle,' Mio wrote below Satoru's name. "What about you, Maki?"
"Gojo sensei introduced her to us on a Sunday, as far as I remember, for a basketball match. Everything seemed normal, but after our introductions, Sukuna came into Yujji's body and introduced himself to Y/N, which was weird. At first I thought that was some kind of threat and he was going to kill Y/N but nothing happened."
'For a basketball match on a Sunday,' Mio wrote below Maki's name. "And I believe that's how you met her too," she said to Toge.
Toge nodded in response.
Below her own name, Mio wrote, "Arrested her for murdering John Rudd."
"What's the point of all this?" Maki asked.
"To get a lead." Mio told what was obvious. She filled the vacant chair on the empty side of the table. Stared at the table for some minutes, then looked at Satoru, she said, "She hasn't left the city."
"What makes you say that?" Satoru asked.
"Her passport and other important documents are at her apartment. Without them she can't go anywhere."
"What if she is in disguise?"
Mio grinned. "No, she would not do that. You know her."
"Well, yeah, I agree."
"Can you guys take some guesses?"
Maki narrowed her eyes and looked at Satoru making him doubt himself. As she tilted her head, he could feel his soul leaving. "Woah! What's wrong?" he asked.
"You're the one who knows the most about her," Maki pointed out. "Are you hiding her?"
"No. Why would I do that?"
"Just saying. Anyway, last time you sent us both to exorcise that special grade, while coming back, we took the shortcut and walked through that alley between those ruins. A girl was being molested there. When we found her, Y/N was so furious that she could have killed that guy." Mio took a deep breath and added, "What I'm trying to say is...I don't know where she is and I can't even guess but I assume that she may head back in that direction. We have no idea what she may be planning while we are sitting here and discussing her whereabouts. Can we search that area?"
"No harm in that," Mio replied. "I will ask someone from my team to inspect the ruins. Any other guesses?"
"No," Satoru answered. Maki and Toge shook their heads.
"Alright then, contact me if you find any clue."
Three of them left the place and Mio started her work.
She pasted the pictures of all the men that Y/N had successfully killed. She wrote down the names of certain people who were close to Y/N. Staring at the list, she circled two names - 'William Cyrus' and 'Jane Rodriguez'. Both are Y/N's colleagues, Satoru had told her. She punched Jane's phone number in her cell phone. After casual introductions, Mio asked for a meeting, which Jane agreed to have. About contacting William, that could be done later, she decided.
Once again, Mio stared at white board which was filled with some pictures, names of humans, names of some places and some phone numbers. She closed her eyes for a minute and recalled everything she prepared and heard. Something caught her attention, she opened her eyes and whispered, "The TEMPLE."
***
A/N : Just a question. Should Y/N forgive Sukuna?