"We know the weather conditions are far from optimal for travel, Esposito-kun. However, the current circumstances require if not obligate your presence back at Tokyo Jujutsu High as soon as possible." Ijichi's formal voice informed the exorcist on speakerphone, Utahime was there to act as a mediator for the mute young man in what would otherwise be an awfully one-sided conversation. The scarred woman glanced at him, his deadpan face, his stare absent and hung low as if disconnected from reality, deep inside with the hidden voices of his thoughts. He was rather dull this morning, to put it simply. Her hopes were that he didn't feel guilty about Kokichi, they both knew there was nothing they could have done last night to prevent this. She should have seen this sooner, if it was anyone's fault, that was hers.
After three seconds he raised his chin as if a machine was finally booting up its system. A message flew through her mind followed by an expecting glance. "He asks if there are any more details about this sudden convocation." Iori communicated to the assistant at the other end of the call.
"I'm afraid that's all there is for now. The nature of the meeting has been concealed from anyone but the Principal and the higher-ups, I've only been tasked to inform you. Do you have any other questions?" Gabriele shook his head.
"Everything's clear, Kiyotaka, thank you."
"A colleague of mine should retrieve you
shortly to accompany you to the station. In the meantime, Utahime-san, may I speak to you in private?" The exorcist gestured at the woman, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to signal he was leaving, almost walking away before she could permit him. Today he was more distracted than usual, all his thoughts seemed to concentrate only on what happened hours ago. That nightmare, it was months he didn't experience this kind of dream. Each time was a different one, but they shared the same reoccurrences and always ended with an abrupt awakening in sleep paralysis. So much had passed since the last time he was completely caught off guard by the fear-inducing state. He hated it, no matter how physically strong he grew, his mind constantly managed to bring him down to his knees, to find cracks in his psyche and slowly erode until it snaps part to part.
Gabriele
'Where the hell have you been?!' He responded, somewhat irritated.
Now is not the moment, someone's ahead
Gabrieleq raised his chin, and his eyes fell on a young adult with the same attire as Ijichi, standing near the entrance talking to herself, rather annoyed by the constant rain.
"I can't believe they sent me out in this crappy weather. Shoot, the suit is completely drenched." The blonde woman watched in concern as water dripped out of the sleeve of her shirt and kept on rambling about deserving some days off. It came to an end once she realized someone was there with her in the corridor. Most importantly, the one person she was looking for. She quickly composed herself before greeting him with a bow: "G-good morning, I'm Akari Nitta, auxiliary manager at Tokyo Jujutsu High. I've been tasked by Kiyotaka with escorting you back to the school, so if there isn't anything you have left to do here we can take our lea-"
"Are you ding-ding girl?" Gabriele interrupted her, his expression transitioning from gloomy to mildly amused.
"Yes, I am ding-ding... wait what?"
"Nobara and Yuuji told me about you. They weren't joking when they said you looked like a golden retriever recently turned human." He explained as his imagination ran wild, now dog ears popped on top of her head right when she cocked it to the side confused. God almighty she isn't doing anything to deny the allegations.
"What is that supposed to mean?!" Akari barked, "Sigh... Anyway, we have roughly thirty minutes to get to the station, just tell me whenever you're ready to go."
The exorcist nodded, telling the assistant they'd leave very shortly once he'd gathered the few things he had brought with him, like the umbrella and the folder containing all his unsent reports. On his way to his room, Gabriele mentally went through a checklist of things he could do in less than half an hour. Discarding whatever would take too much time, he discovered he didn't have much if anything to do. Even taking into account what Ijichi had said earlier, the sooner they leave the better. Opening the door of the room, a swift glance made him knit his eyebrows in worry. The folder was missing. The exorcist immediately started seeking it, over the desk, under the bed and sheets, inside the bathroom cabinet, everywhere. Still, no sight of the folder. That's when it dawned on him... Did he leave it on the train? Gabriele tried to get his thoughts in order, to recollect whether he had stepped off the train with the folder at hand until he heard a couple of knocks. Utahime was leaning against the doorstep, with a bag hanging from her hand.
"You left your things inside the car. You were looking for them, weren't you?" She passed him the backpack. Upon a quick inspection, he found with much relief the folder was inside. However...
"This bag isn't mine."
"I know, were you going to carry that folder in your hand under this weather? I swear it's a miracle that's still dry." Utahime joked around, watching as the boy threw the bag over his shoulder. It was nothing special, dark blue fabric, without any logos in sight, an external pocket spacious enough for his wallet. Useful yes, but it isn't his nonetheless.
"Before you say you can't take it, I insist. Now get out, you don't want to make them wait." Utahime walked behind him and pushed him out into the hallway, closing the door behind them. After a bit of walking, the two joined again with Akari at the entrance. The exorcist and the assistant finally bid farewell to the scarred sorcerer to then go under the heavy downpour. Fortunately, the distance from their car wasn't too much, conceded that the school let the assistant park the car within the confines because of the rain. Anyhow, Gabriele pulled out his umbrella from the bag, opening it above his and Akari's head. As soon as they got on board, the assistant started the engine and drove them off towards the train station.
_______
Gabriele sat comfortably on his seat, for the first time in days the words came out smoothly as he wrote down his report, enjoying the tranquility of the journey. It felt liberating for once to get over his writer's block instead of bashing his head against a wall to complete even a small sentence. He glanced in delight as his pen flowed seamlessly through the paper until a smell caught his attention off his agonistic trance. Akari took her seat on the opposite side of the table he was writing on, before her a foam container with some kind of ball-shaped finger food. The assistant noticed the young man's interest with a smile:
"What are those?" Gabriele asked.
"Oh, these?" She pointed to the food with the pair of toothpicks she took out of the wrap earlier, "These are takoyaki, grilled dumplings filled with minced octopus. I've found a vendor near the station, the owner was an old man from Osaka so I know I'm getting the real deal." Akari then picked a ball and ate it, squirming in glee as she savored it. "I was his first client of the day, sure this storm doesn't help anyone. Here, wanna try?" Akari gave him a toothpick. Hesitantly the exorcist skewered one ball and, after cooling it down a bit, he munched half of the takoyaki. It was soft-textured with a savory flavor, the meaty taste of the octopus was exalted by the sauce and other things his limited culinary experience couldn't recognize totally.
"It's really good." He expressed himself positively, much to the woman's pride.
"That's good to hear. If you haven't already, you should tell your friends to make you try some yakisoba, they're the end of this world." At the mention of his friends, an idea was recalled in Gabriele's mind.
'I should text them that I'm on my way back to Tokyo.'
Immediately he picked up his bag from beneath his seat and fished his phone out of the external pock. Upon pressing the power button though, he came to realize a brute reality... he didn't charge his phone last night, and the battery was completely dead. Gabriele mentally swore at his forgetfulness, although he had a lot on his mind over the last 12 hours: The corpse, the nightmare, Mai... Mai?! Fuck, he forgot to say goodbye to her.
His head dropped head-first against the table, startling the assistant from her snacks.
"Are you alright?"
Sometime later ~ Tokyo's train station
"Fushiguroooooo, how long do we still have to wait?" Nobara groaned in boredom, sitting on a bench near the train platform. With her there were both her classmates, the aforementioned Megumi was killing time on his phone while partially ignoring her whines, and Itadori was next to her absently watching the place getting more and more packed.
"Akari-san called me three hours ago when they were just about to start moving, they should arrive here at any moment now." Said the spiky-haired teenager without taking his eyes off the screen.
"Sure it's crowded here today." Itadori commented.
"It's rush hour in the middle of the week, of course it's crowded, you idiot." Nobara retorted, hitting the boy on the top of his head. Megumi rolled his eyes trying to ignore his friends arguing again when he noticed the Shinkansen slowly coming to a stop in front of the impressive crowd Yuuji had pointed out moments ago. The announcer barely spoke over the general commotion as the doors slid open, Megumi gestured for the other two to get up and begin looking around for the foreigner. Little by little, the passengers gradually got off the bullet train, and the group searched through the
sea of people until Itadori saw some familiar turquoise eyes among the gathering.
"Gabriele!" the Italian's head snapped in Yuuji's direction, a smile crept on his lips as the first-years all approached him and Akari. "Itadori-kun, Kugisaki-san, it's good to see you again. Even you, Fushiguro-kun." she said while leaning a bit to the side to look at Megumi "hiding" behind his classmates.
"Oi, didn't I tell you to bring the goods?" Nobara jabbed her finger into Gabriele's chest. The young man raised his hands in surrender.
"Sorry Nobara, I didn't really have any time to do anything."
"How so?"
Gabriele glanced a few seconds at the assistant, his gaze more of a plea as if he was asking for his next orders. She knew what conflict went on in his mind, questioning how much of the events that happened in the last 24 hours he could disclose to them. Akari simply shook her head, it wasn't his place to tell them about the death of a peer, especially one as gruesome as that. Gojou will take care of this once they get to school. The young man understood and swiftly turned his head back to Nobara, managing a small fictitious smile.
"I got caught in the middle of a storm the moment I set foot in Kyoto. We're lucky that we managed to leave the city without any kind of problems." Gabriele said. It felt like a lie to him despite being absolutely true.
"Anyway we were planning to go eat at the conveyor belt sushi now. Wanna come? You sure look hungry." Itadori interjected the conversation, his eyes transpired every bit of excitement that legitimately scared the foreigner a bit. Fortunately for him, Akari decided to come in clutch and nip in the bud the idea. "Actually, Esposito-kun has to attend an important meeting at Jujutsu High."
"Oh, that sucks." The teenager deflated like a balloon at the rejection, only to recover just as quickly as another brilliant idea crossed his mind. "We could order some takeaway and eat it back in our dorms. Akari-san, could you please take us there? We promise we won't take long."
"Itadori-kun, it doesn't really depend on you how long-"
"Pleeeeeeeease?" The assistant was taken aback by the sudden plea, in which he was joined shortly after by Kugisaki, hand clasped and both bearing puppy eyes. She looked for complicity in the exorcist, but the turquoise-eyed teenager shrugged at her with a sympathetic smile as if to say you're on your own here. Traitor.
______
The group finally reached the main complex of the school, walking down the path that led to the entrance with at least one paper bags in person. Akari on the other hand had left them to get some deserved rest in her own apartment. The atmosphere was jolly, everyone was commenting about whether they could finish the large amount of food they had purchased or about the particular choices they had made, like Gabriele who actually heeded Akari's advice and grabbed himself some yakisoba to try.
"Are you sure you don't want us to take a fork from the cafeteria? Eating noodles with chopsticks can be quite messy." Nobara said.
"I've been here for over two months now. Don't you think I can manage?"
"The first time we went out together you couldn't pick up a nigiri to save your life." Itadori cracked up loudly at Nobara's response, then proceeded to make fun of the Italian exhaustingly while smacking his back repeatedly, Gabriele didn't know what saint to thank that he had both his hands occupied by paper bags at the moment, otherwise he'd have beaten some sense in the dumbass' skull already. As if he read his mind, Megumi whacked the pink-haired student like a mole with his free hand. Within a step from the door of the school building, the dark-haired boy balanced the bag on his hip and, with a bit of effort, pushed the door open. One by one everybody passed through, Nobara, Yuuji, Gabriele, and Megumi in that order but in the hallway, they weren't alone. Principal Yaga and Gojou were there, who at the sound of the door opening immediately shifted their attention towards the newcomers, especially the exorcist with a veiled melancholy.
"Gabriele..." Gojou frowned, "I'm sorry."
The exorcist furrowed his eyebrows in perplexity, then his eyes went wide in terror as two figures, previously facing away from him, turned on their heels to glance at him. Their entire bodies were covered in the same dark-colored clothes of his former uniform, not a speck of skin up to show. A black coat draped over the priestly tunic that accentuated the size of the individuals to compensate for the height disparity, both of them had scabbards dangling from their sides, with longswords conspicuously out in the open, no attempt in hiding them. But what froze the blood in Gabriele's veins was their faces, or better, the lack thereof. Their head was concealed by a white veil, kept still by a crown of golden thorns, and completed by a silvery mask of a frowning lady.
"Seraph." one of them harshly spoke, the mask artificially distorted their voice to the point no one present in the hall couldn't transpire information out of it.
The first-years stood motionless watching between their friends and the masked fellows who slowly closed the distance with Gabriele. His head hung low to avoid staring them directly in the eyes, even though they stopped mere two steps away from him.
"Gabriele? Who are these guys?" Yuuji raised the question. The answer wandered in his mind, becoming more and more prominent and scary that he couldn't function properly, almost forgetting how to communicate.
A frontal kick connected against Gabriele's abdomen, destroying the paper bag in the process. The room was shocked as the exorcist fell to his knees, holding his stomach over the now-stained clothes while the noodles spilled on the ground. "It seems like you have forgotten the etiquette during your stay, Seraph. Here, allow me." With that said, the same boot that struck the poor teenager rose above his head and forced it to meet the floor, pressing against the parquet.
"On your knee and bow down when greeting an Empyrean."
"Oi! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Nobara came forward, hands ready on her hammer and pouch. Everyone in the room was on the edge of their seats, fearing the situation would then escalate for the worse as soon as the other Empyrean stepped between their comrade and the hot-headed student.
"I recommend you to not interfere during the reprehension, heretic." The Empyrean had their grip firmly on the hilt of their sword in a not-so-veiled threat. Nobara went to speak again, but suddenly she felt the muscles of her neck stiffen and her head turn gradually against her will as if someone had grabbed her skull and begun to forcefully twist it. "Tsk, sorcerer... In the Divine Comedy, your kind suffers eternal damnation in the eighth circle of Hell, punished to wander with their heads facing backward. Don't be afraid, you won't feel anyth-"
"¡Quédate quieto, hermano!" The taller exorcist interrupted any action by raising their voice. They looked over their shoulder, gazing at the teacher in apparent standby with hands in his pocket. To test the water twenty minutes into their mission was a bad idea, but to receive such a reaction for disciplining a lower rank, an enemy? That was... interesting to say the least.
"We're guests here. I'd prefer if you'd refrain from your instincts while we're here." they concluded.
Nobara immediately felt her neck relax, gaining back control of all the motions. However, the whole interaction left her mentally torn as her fingers found their way to her throat in bewilderment, with Megumi and Yuuji rushing to her to make sure she was well. Gabriele instead was gritting his teeth from panic, it was his fault, his friend was in danger because of his incompetence, otherwise, there'd be no reason for them to deploy two Empyreans in Japan.
"¡En pie, Serafín! We're going." The Empyrean said, walking past the door and outside of the school, soon joined by the other. The Italian raised his chin, his body pervaded with sadness and shame as he glanced at the first-year assailing Principal Yaga of questions, the adult so desperately trying to calm them down. As he got up, the sounds and cracks of the now-destroyed paper bag alerted the teenagers, now locking eyes with him who so desperately tried to avoid eye contact. Without giving them time to talk, the exorcist turned his back and closed the door behind him.
The Empyreans waited for him a few meters ahead of him: "What has become of your uniform?" The shorter of the two contested, Gabriele just trailing behind them in silence.
"Still refusing to speak, Seraph? I know you're able to." The other commented, disappointment was heavy in their words but the Italian ignored them yet again. A grunt escaped their comrade's mouth, remnants of their past identity keep surfacing despite years passed from their oath. This shouldn't be a problem anymore, they will have a word with them soon. As for the boy, they have ways to make him talk, perhaps the nouveau news will break his silence for once.
"Your mentor has passed away, Gabriele."