"Are we there yet!" I ask as I lazily lay with my torso hung on Gojo's shoulder.
"You're awake already?" He asks.
"Yeaaaaah" I whine.
"Okay just pretend you're asleep till my queue.. okay?!" He asks cheerfully.
"Yes sir!" I let go of all my force on my body and pretend to sleep.
"You're good" He says with a laugh.
"Can't hear you I'm knocked out" I say.
"Got it" He says with a laugh.
>>>
"If we're going to kill you anyway, why not kill you after you've absorbed all of Sukuna? The higher-ups agreed. So now you have two options before you. You can die right now, or you can find all the parts of Sukuna, and die after you've absorbed them" Gojo says with a lifted cursed finger.
"Go with the second one" I whisper as I close my eyes.
"Oh, I forgot to give you the queue.. darnit!" He slaps his knee.
"It's okay just do it now" I close my eyes and stick out my tongue.
"Uh" Itadori seemed confused
"Ah, I give up I don't know what to do" He says
"It's fine, next time" I get up and break through the chains. I pat myself off and fix my clothes.
"Oh.. you really pretended everything" He says
"Yeah, I honestly don't have anything to do" I shrug.
"What.. How'd you.." Itadori looks up at me.
"I've been trained like a war machine all my life" I give him a thumbs up and a smile as I easily show off my excessively sharp canines.
"War machine?" Gojo tilts his head and holds his hands behind his back.
"Yeah! They called me test subject Zero.. I wasn't the initial test though, at least one hundred had to be sacrificed at then the number resets to zero.. that's why. A bunch of kids got killed by Nariko too" My mood switches after the mention of the kids.
"Oh.." Gojo says
"It's the past and I can't do anything about it, other than just continuously hear their voices every now and then" I say with a fake smile.
"You seem to handle it well" Itadori says
"Yeah.. I don't know much about emotion" I laugh.
"Oh.. heh" A sweat falls from Gojo's blindfold as he gives a weak smile.
"Anyways" I clasp my hands together. "What's your decision, oh young Itadori" I crouch down to Itadori and lift up his head from his chin as I squeeze his cheeks.
"I don't know" He says as well as he can due to the lack of proper pronunciation from my hands squeezing his face.
"You've got to admit Gojo really said" I cover my eyes with one hand like a blindfold and walk up to Gojo. I place my hand on his shoulder and deepen my voice. "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" I say then remove my hand from my eyes.
Gojo begins laughing uncontrollably and so does Itadori. "Wait.. where's that from" Itadori asks.
Both me and Gojo look to him seriously. "The Godfather.. 1972" We say in unison.
We turn to each other with a smile and high-five as we say "Got it!"
"uhh.. can I get out of this now?" He asks awkwardly.
"Oh yeah.. hehe, let me just-" He reaches into his pocket for keys but I interrupt.
"Got it" I break it open and he massages his wrists after getting free.
"Oh okay good.. I forgot them somewhere and I was stalling" Gojo says then nervously laughs. "Anyways, you got twenty-four hours"
>>>
Itadori and I take a deep breath before walking into the hospital. I think of what may be appropriate, I think of this one movie where the girl grabs the boy's hand and looks at him with a smile. He smiles back and his mood gets lifted. I'm not sure why and how that works though.
I grab Itadori's hand and turn to him. I look up at him and smile. He blushes, this isn't supposed to happen is it? He's supposed to smile back, not get nervous!
"Sorry" I let go and bring my hand behind my back.
"N- no! It's fine" He pulls my hand away from my back and holds it.
"But your face turned red and you didn't smile" I look down, disappointed at my efforts.
"Uh- um I-.. uh... eheh" He scratches head as he stammers.
"It's fine.. I probably did something wrong" I keep staring at my sneakers.
"No, no.. look at me" He lifts my face the way I did before.
"Wha" My pronunciation changes since my face is squished.
"I'm smiling see!" He smiles brightly which causes my heartbeat to increase oddly.
"That is what I'd like to call cute" I say as I gently pull his hand away from my face. He stammers unsure of how to respond, his eyes widen and his expression is blank. His face is a light tone of red.
"Come now! We can't waste any more time" I drag him into the hospital.
We reach the room our fellow student sits in and Itadori knocks the door. I let go of his hand as he walks into the room.
"Itadori, Zero" The girl with glasses notices our entry.
"How's Iguchi doing?" Itadori asks with his hands in his pockets. We both look over to the boy with bandages wrapped around his head, laying unconscious.
"The doctors say he's fine, but he hasn't regained consciousness... It's all my fault. If I hadn't asked him to come to school that night..." She begins to tear up, and soon begins to sweat from her eyes. Her breath shortens and her voice turns more high pitched.
I tilt my head and narrow my eyes at her. I try to analyze what emotion it might be. Is it regret? Guilt? Sadness? All three maybe.. But those are just names for the emotions she's feeling. I wonder how it must feel.
"I know you won't believe this, but this weird monster attacked us, and I was captured too" She says.
"I believe you" Itadori says to the girl but looks into my eyes.
"Those aren't monsters" I keep my stare into his eyes. "They were curses" I look down at the emotional female.
She looks up at me, her sweating stopped. I crouch down and look up at her with a smile. I wipe her so called tears away then stand up to hug her. I hope this is an effective strategy to end her negative emotional state. I pat her head a few times and she hugs me back. The head pat really works huh?
"That finger was a special-grade cursed object. It has the power to draw other curses and make them stronger. So it wasn't your fault. It was mine for picking it up" I look back to Itadori as I loosen my hold on the now less emotional female.
He holds onto the handle of the bed and tightens his grip. I assume this is the cause of pent up stress. Holding onto something to relieve pain, like a baby on a teething toy when having growing pains. I guess you could say stress and obstacles can help a person grow too. The people around that someone holds onto, can be that reliever.
"Sorry.. It'll be all right, though. Someone's capable of fixing Iguchi will be here tomorrow" Itadori's tone of voice changes. It sounds more happier.
"Itadori" The four eyes looks at him with concern.
"Sorry. There's somewhere we need to go" Itadori takes my hand and we both wave to the girl with a smile. "Bye bye" We say in unison.
We walk in silence and so I avoid looking at him. "Thank you" He says silently as we reach the exit of the hospital.
"For?" I raise an eyebrow, I finally look at him and he seemed sad.
"For coming with me.." He weakly smiles.
"That's what friends are for.. right?.. I'm seriously asking" I say which causes him to laugh.
"Yes, that is what friends are for.. and I'll make sure to live up to your standards" He says then surprises me with a warm embrace. His arms wrap around my tightly.
"It's called a hug by the way" He chuckles as he holds onto me.
"Oh.. I like them" My voice muffles in his hoodie and I snuggle with ease.
"Same here!" He says cheerfully.
Flashback
"I'm sorry.. but this is the last time you'll see me young one" The young woman looks at the girl as she holds her tears back.
"Why?" The girl seems to look at her without emotion, though.. the girl isn't sure how to portray what she feels.
"I don't have enough time.. please promise me you will not become cold hearted... don't let them shape you into a monster, okay? Become a saviour" A tear rolls down the young woman's cheek as she fixes the girl's uniform.
"I don't like this" The girl's voice breaks only once as she speaks. A tear rolls down her cheek as she wipes away her caretaker's tear. She examines her damp thumb and furrows her eyebrows.
"I'm sad.. that's all" The young woman pinches the girls cheek after wiping the single tear away. She smiles at the little girl, concealing the pain and fear she contains.
"I think I'm sad too.." The girl looks down at her black, plain, and dull shoes. Another tear comes down, it falls onto the shoe and trickles down.
The concentration of the girl gets interrupted by arms surrounding her small, not so fragile body. The girl notices how much the young woman is shaking, though she doesn't question it at all.
"In another life.. Zero" The woman kisses the girls forehead and walks away, closing the door to the cell behind her, and locking it.
Zero sits on isolation at the corner of her dull room, a place where the shadows are the darkest, where she doesn't feel the spotlight.
She quietly loses her breath, unable to explain what she might be experiencing.
"Shh.. it's okay. I'm still here, she may be gone. Though, I'll always.. always be here. Okay?" A voice that's only started playing in the girls head recently, spoke up for the first time today.
Zero struggles to speak as she sniffles and loses her breath. "O- okay.. Nariko"