~ 1996 ~
Her eyes drifted over the gardens that lined the path towards the main building. Small brown birds danced between the bush using the leaves and branches as a disguise. The raindrops navigated the web of leaves, some creeping towards the ground while others glistened in the late morning sun. "Miss Sachiko, please try to pay attention." The honey words of her carer took her attention away from her beautiful surroundings. The older woman gave her a stern look as the girl made no effort to show emotion; Sachiko glanced up at the family in front of her.
The adults of all various shapes and heights stood over her as though she was the pastry at a bakery. They all had lighter hair types, directly contrasting with the black-haired girl in front of them. In Western culture, she could be considered a demon with her black eyes, a welcomed feature in the Jujutsu world. Her eyes drifted down as she scoped out her surroundings. They stopped as they connected with bright blue ones. A boy, only a few years older than herself, stood behind the man who was the head and positioned closest to the girl. He had white hair that only made his eyes stand out more. They shone with curiosity at the sight of the girl.
The head walked towards the girl and knelt before her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Sachiko, we have waited for you for a long time and are very glad you have come to live with us." He said, Sachiko's face faltered for a second as she glanced up at her carer confused. The man followed her gaze and stood up, facing the carer, "She is unaware of this arrangement?"
"It is the head of the Chiyo family's belief that informing the children will cause more stress than necessary and that they are unable to comprehend it. The Chiyos are produced for their curse technique, not their intelligence and the children a slower learners, which makes them easier to manipulate." The carer stated her rehearsed lines. The Head nodded, unsure, before looking down at the girl again. He offered her a kind smile which she did not return, instead her eyes went back to the boy.
"That is my son, Satoru. You both will get to know each other in time." He stated Satoru and Sachiko glanced up at him before looking back at each other. The head and the carer shared a few more words before she started to walk away. Sachiko followed her movements before turning back to the Head. He stared down at her with an unreadable gaze; he placed his hand on her shoulder and guided her inside, following behind the other members of the family. "Sachiko, you are now a member of the Gojo clan, and here, we do not treat our children as though they are nothing. If you need anything, please ask."
"Thank you," She says politely, her face still unfaltering. The head sighed slightly as he gestured for a woman to come forward. Sachiko looked up at her. She had kind green eyes and light brown hair pulled back into a bun. She knelt in front of Sachiko and brushed a loose hair from her face, which tickled the girl. A small giggle came from her as she tilted her chin, but she quickly corrected herself.
"My name is Yui. I will be your caretaker. It is a pleasure to meet you, Sachiko; you have a beautiful smile," Yui says with a sweet, quiet voice. Sachiko's face falters as her lip wobbles a bit. Suddenly, tears start rolling down her face, startling her head while Yui rubs the girl's shoulders. "Oh my dear, you're a bit confused, aren't you?"
"She said I had to be on my good behaviour, or you would send me back, and I don't want to go back." She cried as she wrapped her arms around the woman and buried her face into her chest. Yui brushed her hand over the girl's head trying to soothe the girl, she questioned why she didn't want to go back. "They were mean. I would get in trouble for trying to play with the other kids or in the gardens. I like gardens. They're my favourite place in the whole wide world!"
"We are very nice I promise and we will not be sending you back, you are very important to us and we have been waiting for you for a long time." The head said, kneeling; he glanced back at his son, who stood with his mother, watching the scene, confused. He gestured for him to come over, but the boy shook his head and stepped behind his mother. The girl looked up at the older man and tears welded in her black eyes, his heart broke at the sight. "Sachiko, you will never return to them. Now let's go see your new room. I think you'll like it a lot."
As the days turned into months, Sachiko's time with the Gojo clan became more and more comfortable, though they still struggled to get the girl to open up to anyone other than her main carer, Yui. Most days, she would spend her time outside in the gardens playing with a knitted doll that Satoru's grandmother had gifted her upon her arrival. It was a frog with button eyes made after they were given small details about the young girl's interests, her main one being an 'unwelcomed love of nature'.
Sachiko was kneeling as she moved the doll frog across the rocks that lined a small flower patch within the garden. It housed nemophila flowers that annually bloomed in spring, but as they moved into summer, they began to wilt. There were patches throughout the Gojo estate in the various gardens that have been increasingly maintained after the young girl's arrival. The gardeners appreciated the young girl's praise and love of their work.
Yui sat on a bench beside her, consistently glancing between her ward and book. The young girl was easy to watch, never straying too far away from her carer, except for Renho, an older woman in her 60s who looked after Sachiko on Yui's days off. She had returned multiple times to find the woman frustrated after spending most of the day searching for the young girl. It never failed to make Yui laugh.
"Yui, I think the flowers are much prettier when they are blue," Sachiko said as Yui read through a few lines in her book. She quickly glanced at the girl and then back, Yui explained that they were but like everything they followed a seasonal pattern and would return next spring. Sachiko gave a cheeky giggle as she ran over to the woman. She grabbed her arm and stared up at her with a scrunched nose and a smile. "But Yui, I made them blue again now. See, I like it a lot better."
Yui looked up, ready to join in the girl's imagination, when her eyes widened at the site of once-dead flowers in full bloom as though time was sent back. She dropped her book on the seat and stood up, walking towards the flowers; she knelt and plucked one. She twisted it between her fingers, admiring the miracle before looking down at Sachiko, who watched her with pride radiating from all parts of her body. "Sachi, can you do this to the other flowers?"
"Uh huh, I've been doing them to the flowers in my room too. Miss Renho never changes the water, so they die so quickly." She admits as she wanders over to another patch of flowers, with a touch of her finger they suddenly all burst into bloom making the young girl sneeze. "See, I told you. I told Miss Renho but she never listened to me, she says I have a good head for stories. I don't really like writing-" As the girl continued to mutter about things, Yui caught the attention of a guard watching them from the path. He rushed closer, and Yui stopped him so the girl wouldn't see him so close. She has a habit of becoming very reserved once someone comes near them, and she has never seen her so outgoing.
"Go get the Head." She mouthed to him as he stared at her, confused. Each time Sachiko glanced at her to see if she was listening, she would have to stop and pretend she was actively listening. The guard finally caught on and rushed into the house, soon he was followed out by the older man and his wife. They both stayed out of sight as Yui nodded to them. The carer looked down at the young girl who had moved on to talking about a book with a picture of a princess kissing a frog and how she liked frogs but not enough to kiss them as they usually are slimy and have weird eyes like Satoru. "Sachiko, can you show me the flower trick again?"
"No," She said nonchalantly as she moved away from them and back towards the rocks where her frog toy lay. Yui panicked as she tried to think of a way to bribe the kid into doing the technique again. She stated that the girl could have two scoops of ice cream tonight for dessert if she did it for her. The girl stopped in her tracks and, without turning around, asked, "With sprinkles?"
"Of course," Yui said sighing in relief, the girl turned to her with a bright smile and skipped over to another patch of dead flowers, She repeated it and the blue flowers stood out amongst the foliage, an impossible sight in the middle of summer. As quick as it happened, the young girl got distracted by a rhinoceros beetle that revealed itself in the tree above the flower patch. Yui looked back at the leaders as they looked at the girl with amazement.
It was mentioned before her auction that she may develop a Hanabusa curse technique, which is generally common. Power transmutation, however, was the rarest curse technique in the family. It last occurred over two hundred years ago. To regular Jujutsu sorcerers, this gift can be seen as a form of plant manipulation, but that is impossible as plants do not harbour curse energy, which means a curse technique can not control them. Sachiko's technique is the ability to mutate curse power into an energy that can directly affect the state of any plant species. The last inheritor had four main effects: the effect of progression, the effect of Vitality, the effect of Regression, and finally, the effect of fragility.
This was the day that her future as a Jujutsu sorcerer was cemented. Her attendance at Jujutsu High was written into the Gojo family's plan for her.