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Whisperings.. That's all that can be heard in my ears every time, anytime and anywhere. I always hear the same whispers from those whose faces I can no longer remember..
-"Did you know that Akari-sama's death was caused by Hinari-sama?.."
-"Ah, I also heard that Hinari-sama was.... Cursed?"
-"I heard it too! They said that unlike any other kid from the main family, she's.. 'Special' in a scary way.."
-"Hey! Watch your mouth..!"
-"It's fine, right? It's just a rumour."
-"But.. Didn't you think that Hinari-sama is really scary?.. Something feels off with her, weird things always happen when she's around."
-"Hey, lower your voice! If someone, especially Yukari-sama, heard it.. We are dead..!"
-"Please be Happy.. Hinari. Please live a long life.. my dearest Niece."
"... sei"
"... sei!"
".... nsei!!"
"... Shirazaki-sensei!"
She flinched and sat up right away, her eyes blinking several times when she was dragged back to reality. "Ah I'm sorry, I fell asleep.."
"Did you stay up late, sensei?" Maki asked worryingly.
"I did.. I was on a mission yesterday and it's quite tiring. Anyways, are you two ready?" She smiled. Maki and Panda nodded, "Just leave the billing on me." She said and they thanked her.
After Maki and Panda finished their meal, they walked together with Hinari to the abandoned mansion near the restaurant.
"Do you want me to help?" She asked with a gentle smile as always.
"No, it's fine. If you help us, we won't be able to do anything sensei.." Maki chuckled, "Yup~ With one blast, they're all going to be exorcised." Panda added
She chuckled and furrowed her eyebrows, "I guess you're right.. Alright then, I'll put up the curtain first," she muttered, then extended her right Index and middle finger, while the other fingers were curled into her palm as she chanted, "Emerge from the darkness, darker than the darkness. Purify that which is impure."
With that Hinari creates a dark barrier that surrounds the mansion area, to seal the area off from other people so that they can't get in nor see what's going on inside and to prevent the curses lurking to escape.
Before the curtain was sealed off completely, she stepped away and waved at her students, "Good luck Maki, Panda."
"Thanks, Sensei." Maki smiled and Panda waved back at her. Once it's completely sealed off, Hinari waited outside while sitting on one of the swings, waiting for her students to finish their work.
As she was humming a random tune, her phone vibrated and she fished it out, looking at the Caller ID then picked up the call right away.
"Yes, Gojo-senpai?"
"Ah Hina, I have good news!"
"Really? What's the good news?" She asked with a smile while moving the swing. "Yuji passed the interview with Yaga-sensei earlier~"
"Really?" She smiled brightly, "Then Megumi won't be alone. Ah senpai, what about the second student? Isn't she supposed to be there today?"
"You sure think of Megumi a lot," he chuckles, "and the second student should be here tomorrow, Hina. not today."
"Ah so it's tomorrow." She replied, nodding. "Yep~ and I think we should celebrate this tonight!" Gojo grinned on the other side of the line.
Hinari stopped the swing using her legs and smiled wryly, "I wanted to join you but apparently, me and the second years should go to another place, senpai. It'll be a busy three day trip for us, I'm sorry.."
"Aww.. really??" He pouted and sighed "Well it can't be helped then.. but make sure you take care of yourself okay?"
"Okay." She chuckled "You too, make sure you do your work properly, Gojo-senpai"
"I always do my work properly."
She laughed a bit after she heard that, "No you don't."
"Hey! I always do my work properly. I even tag along when Megumi is on his mission." He replied.
"You did that because you just want to buy souvenirs and go sightseeing right?" She covered her lips with her hand while giggling.
"No I don't! You didn't believe me?! Ah I'm hurt!" He said in a very dramatic way. "Quit being Disgusting, Gojo-sensei."
Hinari blinked her eyes upon hearing Megumi's voice over the phone and laughed in response.
"Hmh, you're just jealous that I get to call your beloved teacher and you don't, right?"
"What?!"
"Oh! So Fushiguro likes Shirazaki-sensei??"
"You, shut up."
"He sure likes her~" Gojo teased. "I don't like her that way!! Stop spreading baseless rumours or I'll punch you, Gojo-sensei."
"So you do like her?" He continued to tease his student and laughed. "Seriously, I'll punch you, Gojo-sensei!"
"Ooh~ scary~"
Hinari chuckles again while listening to their conversation.
"With that being said~" Gojo said and spoke in a very gentle voice to her, "Please come back safely Hinari. I'll be waiting."
Her expression softened and a gentle smile formed on her cherry lips "I will, Senpai.." Right after she said that, she brought her left hand to her chest where her heart beats.
"Fuuaahh, finally. They're all exorcised." Panda said with a sigh of relief. "That's quite the hell inside. Just how many dead bodies are buried underneath this stinky mansion?" Maki said fixing her glasses
"Maki, Maki.." Panda tapped her shoulder and she turned her head to the side. "Hm? What?"
Panda pointed his finger and Maki turned her head to where Inumaki was pointing at, they saw Hinari placing her left hand on her chest and smiled warmly, still on a phone call.
"I know, senpai.." they heard her soft voice from where they're standing. They're too surprised when they heard Hinari's soft voice that rings like a pleasant melodies in their ears.
"I know she's a gentle person but I didn't know that she could make such an expression.." Maki muttered. "Yeah, and was that Satoru on the call?.."
Feeling someone's presence nearby, she smiled at her students, "Ah You're finished?" She asked, getting up from the swing and keep her phone back to her trench coat pocket.
"Oh, yeah we're done." Maki said.
"Alright, good job both of you." She smiled and clapped her hand once, "Now we should go to the nearby station, Toge is most likely there."
"Okay, sensei." The two replied at the same time and they proceeded to follow their itinerary.
Meanwhile Gojo is still standing there, looking at his phone while smiling. His heart felt warm when he heard her voice.
"Gojo-sensei? Are you done with the phone call?" Itadori asked. Gojo keeps his phone back in his pocket before nodding, "yup~ anyways where do you guys want to eat?"
"Anywhere is fine." Fushiguro mutters. "Hmm.. maybe Ramen?" Itadori asked
"Ramen then! Come on, off we go!"
Gojo and his students went out to eat together while Hinari and her students were out on a mission, the next day, Gojo and his two students went out to pick up the third first years student member, Kugisaki Nobara. She was then approved by Gojo due to her strength and craziness in dealing with the cursed spirits.
He updated Hinari about Nobara and her craziness as well as her cursed technique, the two teachers always speak through the phone call each time they're apart. But she never once called him first unless it's about work.
Talking about work, sadly Hinari's mission trips were extended for a few more days due to the limited numbers of Jujutsu Sorcerers. She needed to go to a separate place from her students.
Two weeks later, An incident happened in West Tokyo, Eishuu Juvenile detention centre. In the sky above the Exercise yard, an unnamed apparition of potential special grade-a Cursed Womb, was witnessed by several Non-Jujutsu Sorcerers there. Due to the Emergency, the three Jujutsu High First Years were dispatched to the scene.
"Hello?" Hinari spoke, answering the phone call but no one spoke, this worried her and she spoke again,"Hello? Megumi? Are you okay?"
"Sensei.." he said softly.
She began to feel even more worried when she heard his slightly trembling voice, "Megumi? Is everything alright? Hello?"
"Itadori..."
"Yuji-kun? What's wr-"
"He's dead." Megumi spoke and Hinari widened her eyes, her lips parted slightly. "....What?"
//////
"Is it really okay to drop you off here, miss?" The taxi driver asked the fair-haired lady to make sure that she really asked him to drop her off on the roadside near the forest.
"Yes, it's fine." She replied with her usual smile and paid for the ride before getting out of the car.
Watching the taxi drive off, She walked past the school's barrier and went straight to the morgue of the School. Last night after trying to cheer Megumi up, Gojo called her and informed of the same thing about Itadori. He then told her to go to the morgue as soon as she arrived at Tokyo the next day so she did what Gojo said and because she also wants to see Itadori.
Her footsteps echoed throughout the empty hall of the morgue and when she was almost there, she heard voices of people who were having a conversation inside the room and she halted her steps right away.
"It was on purpose, wasn't it?"
Senpai?.. she thought.
"H-Huh?.. what do you mean.."
And Ijichi..
"Dispatching first years to rescue five people with unclear information on whether they are alive or not. And on top of that, making them go up against a Special Grade Curse.. it should be questioned." Gojo said and Hinari widened her eyes.
"T-That's.."
"I did the impossible and granted Yuji an indefinite postponement on his death penalty. What's really messed up is that they stealthily disposed of him in my absence with the help of a Special Grade curse, that's what it is, isn't it?"
"... That can't be.." Ijichi trembles
"If the other two had also died, it'd be more harassment for me. This is similar to what happened back then. They thought doing something to spite me would kill two birds with one stone."
"N-No.. but, no one expected it to become a Special Grade curse by the time the dispatch was issued..!"
"Searching for someone to be blamed is a pain in the ass. Maybe I should just.." Gojo gritted his teeth in anger and muttered, "Kill all of the Higher-Ups."
Hinari could feel her blood boiling too as soon as she heard all of that and she finally stepped in front of the automatic sliding door. "Who issued the order?" She asked firmly, making Ijichi flinched and trembled in fear even more.
"S-Shirazaki-san.."
"Who.. issued the order?." She repeated and clenched her fist, her nails digging into her flesh making droplets of blood fall to the floor, showing how strong her grip is as she tried to control her emotions.
"T-That's.."
"It's rare to see both of you being so emotional." Shoko said as she stood behind Hinari. "Shoko-senpai.." Hinari muttered.
"Hinari, you're hurting yourself." She said and held her hands, healing it using her reverse curse technique "don't do that."
"I'm sorry.." she muttered looking at her now-healed hands. "It's fine. I understand." She said with a smile and Ijichi greeted her immediately. "Thank you for your hard work, Ieiri-san!"
"Hm, to me.." she smiled while playing with the tip of her hair, "both of you were really fond of him.."
Hinari lowered her eyelids and Gojo raised his hand. "I've always been a nice guy who's always fond of my students."
"Don't torment Ijichi too much, it's hard having to stand between us and the higher-ups."
Keep going.. keep going.. Ijichi blushed and thought to himself when Shoko defended him a bit earlier but soon was distracted back to reality when Gojo spoke again.
"I don't give a damn about a Man's Hardships."
"Oh, is that so?" Shoko answered and Hinari sighed lightly.
She was so worried and she couldn't hide it. Gojo then taps her hand lightly and she looks to her left side where Gojo is sitting and sees him mouthing, 'Don't worry.' To her
He held her hand gently to ease her and soon, her anxiousness and anger finally subsided. She smiled wryly at him and nodded.
"And this is.." Shoko muttered and took off the white blanket that covered Itadori's body "Sukuna's Vessel, Right?"
"Yeah." Gojo answered.
"I can dissect him however I want, right?"
Without moments of hesitation, Gojo replied, "Make good use out of him."
"Oh I will, who do you think you're talking to?"
ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴜʀꜱᴇ ɪ | 05
[A/N]: FULLY EDITED.