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m1ckeyb3rry · 1 year ago

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Hurricanes / Hummingbirds: IV

Series Synopsis: As the years go by, you find that it is incredibly difficult to survive wars and fight storms, especially when the only thing you have by way of a cursed technique is the blessing of a tiny bird.

Chapter Synopsis: You, Nanami, and Haibara take on a mission to help Gojo and Geto.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Hajime Kashimo x Female Reader; slight Kento Nanami x Female Reader; slight Satoru Gojo × Female Reader

Chapter Word Count: 4.3k

Content Warnings: swearing, enemies/rivals to lovers, character death, canon-typical violence, angst, gore, original characters included

A/N: the found familyest found family

“This does not seem like the kind of mission that first years should be assigned to,” Nanami said as you trudged through the airport, the veins of his hand standing out from how hard he was clutching the strap of the bag carrying his characteristic blunt blade. “It’s definitely inappropriate for them to have called us here.”

“Maybe so, but I’m still psyched. I really want to show Geto that I’m reliable and strong!” Haibara said.

“Plus, he and Gojo are working so hard to protect that poor girl. We should do whatever we can to help them in their cause,” you said, absentmindedly stroking the Sword of Syrinx, which hung from your belt as always.

“I doubt they’re doing anything that serious,” Nanami muttered. “Knowing them, they’re probably slacking off as usual, leaving us to do the actual hard work.”

“I don’t know about that. If they specifically were called on the mission, that means it’s special grade worthy. They probably won’t even have a chance to slack off, and whatever they’re dealing with must be worse than what we have going on. Otherwise, they would’ve offered to trade positions with us,” you said.

“Whatever,” Nanami said with a frown. “It’s still way more work than I was planning on doing over the weekend, and you know what the worst part is? Since it’s their mission, we won’t even get paid for the hours of our lives that we are losing.”

“I’m sure we can get Hinode to convince the higher ups to give us a bonus if we do a good job,” you said. “But regardless, we came here as a favor to our upperclassmen, so getting paid should be the furthest thing from your mind.”

When Gojo and Geto had texted you and Haibara respectively, asking for yours and Nanami’s help on their mission, you and Haibara had jumped at the chance to make yourselves useful. Nanami had been far more reluctant, but that was just how he was, so it was to be expected.

Though you had begun the mission thinking it would be difficult and dangerous, things were slow and there was little to do but people watch — this was at least somewhat interesting, given the number of eccentric people filing in and out of the airport at any given time.

You and Haibara began a game where you tried to imagine lives for the various travelers. Nanami thought the game was ridiculous and chose not to participate, leaving the two of you to giggle like schoolchildren over the increasingly over-the-top backstories you came up with.

“I bet she’s on the run,” you said.

“From the law or from gangsters?” Haibara said, eyes wide and voice hushed as he glanced at the woman you were surreptitiously motioning towards.

“From her former lover,” you said.

“Why?” he said.

“He only married her to inherit the family fortune, but she found out in the nick of time and is now absconding with her wealth to reunite with her childhood best friend, who has secretly been in love with her for years,” you said.

“How romantic!” he said. “I bet that guy is in the middle of a heist.”

“Jewels or art?”

“Probably the glass eye of a famous politician.”

“What does that even mean?” you said. Haibara shrugged.

“First odd thing I could think of. How would he even pull that off?” he said.

“Maybe when the politician was in a deep, deep sleep — you know the kind where your lids are fluttering and all? Yeah, that stage — he snuck into the room, used his fingers to manually open the politician’s eyes, plucked the glass one right out, and then escaped before the politician could wake up,” you said.

“Would it be slimy?” he said.

“The glass eye? Probably, but I’d assume he rinsed it off for storage purposes. That briefcase looks like leather,” you said. “If you mean the politician, I’d have to say that’s an outdated joke.”

“But you probably found it funny anyways,” he said.

“Maybe a little bit,” you acquiesced.

“Say, do you think we’ll have to stay here for the night?” Haibara said.

“Probably not,” Nanami said, finally deigning to speak to you all. He was currently perusing a rack of magazines idly, though you knew none of them would interest him very much. At that moment, your phone buzzed, and when you flipped it open, you saw that it was a text from Gojo.

‘extending trip for an extra day xoxo.’

“It looks like they’re staying for an extra day,” you said, showing Nanami the text. “So probably, yes.”

His face turned green, and he grabbed your phone as if he could not quite comprehend what he was reading. “That’s cruel. We’ve been here the whole day.”

You scoffed. “It’s not that big of a deal. The girl’s going to have to merge with Tengen; don’t you think she at least deserves a couple of days of fun before she essentially loses her life? What they’re doing is a good thing.”

“Why’d you have to go and make it a question of morality?” he said. “Ugh. We’ll take turns sleeping.”

“I’m not tired yet,” you said.

“Neither am I,” he said. In unison, you turned to look at Haibara, who was already slumped against the wall, snoring lightly. You smiled fondly at him, and even Nanami relaxed a bit, taking off his jacket and draping it over Haibara like a blanket.

“I guess he’s first, then,” you said. Nanami leaned against the wall beside Haibara, and you did the same. Although you needed to remain vigilant, both of you allowed yourselves to take a moment to breathe. After a day of nothing happening, it was hard to believe that anything would actually attack you.

“Do you ever wonder what our futures will be like?” Nanami said, some time later. It had gotten to be late enough at night that the airport had quieted a bit, or at least gotten as quiet as an airport could get, and it almost seemed like the two of you — plus the sleeping Haibara — were the only ones in the whole building. It would’ve been eerie, but with Nanami and the Sword of Syrinx at your side, you found you were not scared.

“Sometimes,” you admitted. “But also, not really. I expect it’ll just be an endless cycle of exorcising curses until I’m killed or retire.“

“Besides being a sorcerer,” he said. You tilted your head, gazing out at the night sky through the glass windows of the airport.

“What else is there, besides being a sorcerer?” you said. “It’s all I have left for me, since my parents clearly want nothing to do with me and I don’t really have any friends to speak of back home.”

“I wish there was something else,” he said.

“Do you not want to be a sorcerer or something?” you said. It was the first you had ever heard of such a thing; though Nanami hated having to do any work, he also was a model student and excellent at his job.

“It’s a shitty life, that’s all. You said it best — an endless cycle of exorcising curses until you die. Maybe you’ll get to retire, if you’re lucky,” he said. “There’s not even a point to it all.”

“That’s true,” you said. “But…no, I can’t argue with that. You’re right.”

“It’s probably the hour,” he said when your dissatisfaction became clear. “It’s so easy to slip into depressing thoughts during the night. Let’s talk about something else. Look, the moon’s already so high in the sky. It’s pretty tonight, isn’t it?”

“It is,” you said. It was bright and full, a silver dollar in a velvet sky, peering down at you benevolently. “I miss the stars, though.”

It was because there were too many lights. Cities never slept, after all; it was never fully dark enough to see anything besides the moon and the winking of planes passing by overhead. For some reason, it made you sad, though you could not recall ever caring much about the stars in the past.

“They’re still out there somewhere,” he said. “Even if we can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they’re gone.”

“I suppose not, but it’s hard to believe in things without the proof of their existence,” you said.

“As long as they were there at one point, I can do it,” he said. “That’s enough proof for me.”

A manager came to pick you all up when it was time to go back. Contrary to Nanami’s complaints, it really had been an uneventful mission. The most excitement was when a shop owner accused Haibara of stealing the book he had, in fact, paid for, but it was all smoothed over when you showed her the receipt. Otherwise, you all had done little more than laze around and do what you would’ve done back at the school anyways.

“Were Gojo and Geto successful?” you said as the manager started the engine and pulled out of the airport parking lot. You were sitting in the backseat with Haibara, as Nanami had claimed he would get carsick if he could not be in the front — whether this was true or not, you weren’t sure, but neither you nor Haibara were willing to risk it.

The manager cleared her throat. “Well. No, not exactly.”

You cocked your head, for certainly you must’ve heard her wrong. Haibara seemed similarly confused, and even Nanami stiffened a bit, though this might’ve been due to nausea.

“I think you might’ve misunderstood what I was saying,” you said, as politely as you could manage. How was it that Geto and Gojo, the strongest sorcerers, the best of the best, had failed? It was inconceivable. You could not imagine a world in which they were not the pinnacle of achievement. Nothing was supposed to be impossible for them, so how could one simple mission have gotten their better?

“I didn’t,” the manager said, turning the car sharply, throwing you against your seatbelt, which instantly turned taut so that you didn’t smash into the seat in front of you. “Gojo and Geto failed. The girl was killed by an assassin before she could merge with Tengen.”

“An assassin?” Haibara said. “Are the upperclassmen okay?”

The manager did not say anything, and your stomach dropped. Your nails sunk into the black leather seat, and your toes curled as various scenarios ran through your mind.

“Geto was in critical condition, but the assassin supposedly left him alive for fear of what would happen to his gathered curses should he die, so Ieri was able to heal him,” the manager finally said. “As for Gojo —”

“No,” you said immediately, cutting her off before she could finish. “He’s alright. Don’t lie and say that he’s not.”

How was it that even in your worst nightmares, you hadn’t imagined Gojo harmed? He was supposed to be untouchable. He had the Infinity that not even his counterpart Geto could claim, he was that rambunctious boy that had effortlessly exorcised the curse about to kill you and then bought you food. You could believe anything else. You could believe that Geto had been beaten, though even that was fantastical, more fiction than reality, but at least you could envision it. But Gojo? You could not. You could not even picture it. He was so full of vitality, he was life itself, and the absence of it, emptiness in what ought to be whole, was wrong.

“He is alright,” the manager said. You, Haibara, and Nanami breathed a collective sigh of relief. It was more than just caring for Gojo that fueled it. If there existed a being that was Gojo’s superior, then none of you were safe. Gojo’s power was monstrous and unprecedented, but if he was a monster — and of course he was not, but even if he was — he was a monster that was on your side. It was easier to be alright with impossibility when it was to your benefit. It was harder to accept when it was an unknown, when it wanted to harm you, even.

“So, then? Why’d you hesitate and frighten all of us like that?” you said, hugging the Sword of Syrinx to your chest. It sent out a pulse of warmth, its attempt at soothing you, and to its credit, it worked, the cursed energy mixing with your own and raising your spirits just a bit.

“He was killed,” she said. “And left for dead. Somehow, that situation managed to unlock his reverse cursed technique, and subsequently his cursed technique reversal. He healed himself and used his newfound discovery to utilize a secret technique, the Hollow Technique Purple, before using it to kill the assassin.”

“Um?” you said. “I don’t know how I should feel about that.”

“It’s like I’ve gone through every stage of grief at once,” Haibara mused.

“That’s a dumbass name for a technique,” Nanami said with an air of finality. “Especially one as difficult and powerful as that. The best they could come up with was Purple?”

“I’m just glad he’s alright,” you said, grateful to Nanami for lightening the mood. “Also, Purple makes sense. It’s a combination of Red and Blue.”

“Which, by the way, aren’t much better,” he said. “Whatever. Good for him for learning to use it.”

This was how he expressed himself, so you didn’t reprimand him. No matter how much he claimed to dislike Gojo, it was nothing more than surface-level, and when it came down to it, he had been just as worried about him as you and Haibara had been.

There were still slick sanguine stains covering the stone courtyard of the school, fly head curses buzzing around, sticking their proboscises into the puddles and growing fat from the blood they sucked up. You paused by the deepest well, staring at the depths of the liquid, half-mesmerized and half-sickened by the sheen of power glossed over the top.

“This is Gojo’s,” you said, a sour taste in your mouth. “But there’s so much.”

“Let’s go,” Nanami said, lightly touching your shoulder. “Don’t dwell on it. He’s fine, you heard the manager say so.”

“But there’s just so much,” you repeated. It was everywhere, rivers and rivers that the curses were feasting on without care. It didn’t matter if the manager said Gojo was okay. You weren’t like Nanami. You couldn’t believe in anything without proof, and the only proof you had was what you saw in front of you.

There was a faint voice in the back of your mind.

Would you like to…would you like to…

When you tried to discern what it was saying, however, it disappeared. You ground your teeth in frustration. Because now anger had taken over your feeble terror, and before you could really think about it, you had drawn the Sword of Syrinx.

“What are you doing?” Haibara said. It was not accusing; he was just curious, and you squared your shoulders before you responded.

“These curses,” you said, pointing the sword at them. “They don’t deserve it. They don’t deserve to get stronger because of someone else’s pain.”

“There’s nothing to be done about it,” Nanami said. “Come on, I’m sure Hinode is waiting for us.”

“There is something to be done about it,” you said. “And I will do it. I will exorcise them.”

“Me, too!” Haibara said. Maybe he had also been thinking along the same lines and was glad you had spoken up, or maybe it was a novel idea you had had, but either way, you were glad for the support.

“You guys are such a headache,” Nanami said, but he was already taking out his blunt blade and activating his technique on a nearby fly head.

There were so many curses crawling around the campus that it was already high noon by the time you had exorcised all of them. In an effort to calm your temper, Haibara had proposed a competition, and then the fighting actually became somewhat fun, each of you tallying up the amount of curses you took out and trying to get rid of more than the others.

“I got 360,” Nanami said.

“Weak numbers,” Haibara commented. “668 for me.”

“What the hell?” Nanami said. “Where did you even find that many? And why did you go that hard?”

“I had to win!” Haibara said. “Let’s hear it, Y/N.”

“672,” you said. “How does it feel to lose?”

“It was only barely,” Haibara said. “So I’ll take it.”

“At least you did better than Nanami,” you agreed. “Nanami, were you even trying?”

“No,” he said. You looked at him and then at Haibara, who made a face as if to remind you you couldn’t really expect much more from Nanami.

“Fair enough,” you said. “Now, we should really go check in with Hinode.”

“If he’s upset with us, I’m blaming you,” Nanami said.

Hinode was in his classroom when you three walked in, drawing something on the chalkboard that resembled a swarm of fly head curses. When you shuffled into the room, he did not even turn around to greet you, continuing to draw, digging his chalk into the board passive-aggressively.

“It’s good to see my students showed up,” he said. “I was beginning to think they’d skip the entire day.”

“Sorry, sir,” you said. “It’s my fault.”

“I’m a relaxed teacher, but even I occasionally have things for you all to do,” he continued. “I don’t know what you were so busy with, but in the meantime, the campus has been swarmed with fly head curses. If we let them wander around willy-nilly, they’ll multiply into a real problem. Even this much time having elapsed means it’ll be harder to get rid of them once and for all.”

“More fly heads? But we just exorcised so many,” Haibara said. “What gives?”

“I already got rid of 360,” Nanami said. “That’s my quota for the day. Anything more and I want to be paid a bonus.”

“Hinode, sir, I’m sorry we were late to class, but we were busy cleaning up the campus from all of the fly heads that came due to the assassin’s attack. If those are the fly heads you speak of, then rest assured that they have already been taken care of,” you said.

“You three exorcised all 1,700 of those fly head curses without even being asked to?” Hinode said, the chalk dropping from his hand and turning to dust under his foot as he took a step towards you.

“Yes. Should we not have?” you said. “It was just really gross that they were sitting around and drinking Gojo’s blood like that. Speaking of which, you should send someone to wash that whole mess up. Oh! And, um, is Gojo around?”

“He’s in his room,” Hinode said. “Did you guys seriously get rid of all of the fly heads already?”

“Do you not believe us?” Haibara said.

“We’re definitely strong enough to deal with a bunch of curses that are so weak, they don’t even qualify as grade 4’s,” Nanami said.

“I’m not doubting you, it’s just…no, never mind. Good job; I’m sorry for being angry earlier. You can take the rest of the day to shower and do whatever you want. I’m proud of you,” Hinode said.

Proud. You, Nanami, and Haibara had made Hinode proud. The three of you barely made it out of the room before you and Haibara squealed, grabbing Nanami into a group hug.

“We made Hinode happy!” Haibara said.

“Can you believe it? Kaito Hinode, the Kaito Hinode, he’s proud of us!” you said. Nanami rolled his eyes but did not even shove you off.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess it’s pretty cool,” he said. Even though Hinode was never critical and was actually pretty liberal with his praise, it still felt different this time. It wasn’t like you had succeeded at doing something you had been assigned — you had exceeded his expectations, made him proud just by being yourselves. It was the most validation you had ever received.

“Now, I’m going to shower and nap until dinner time,” Haibara said, letting Nanami go.

“Skipping lunch? That’s so unlike you,” you said.

“It pains me to do so, but I’m just exhausted. We barely got any rest at the airport, and then the sheer number of fly heads we had to exorcise took more out of me than I initially realized it would,” Haibara said with a yawn.

“I agree,” Nanami said. “I might eat, but then I’m getting in bed for a bit. I need to catch up on my rest, and my back hurts.”

“I guess I’ll see you all at dinner, then,” you said.

“You’re not going to sleep?” Haibara said.

“I would like to, but I want to make sure Gojo is alright first,” you said.

“You’re such a good underclassman,” Nanami said.

“Send our well-wishes!” Haibara said.

“Yes, please do that,” Nanami said.

“I’ll be sure to,” you said.

Gojo’s room was locked tightly shut, and when you knocked, the only answer you received was a muffled go away. It was enough proof that he was alive, so technically you should’ve been satisfied by it, but you knew all too well that being alive and being alright were two separate things.

You returned a few minutes later with the necessary supplies, and then you braved knocking again.

“It’s me, Y/N,” you said softly.

“I’m busy,” he said.

“I brought sweets?” you tried, crinkling the paper bag of convenience store snacks you had gotten to bribe him into opening the door. They were nothing like what he had treated you to on your mission together, but they were enough that a few seconds later, he cracked his door open, a single suspicious blue eye peeking out at you.

“Come in,” he said, replacing his glasses and opening the door wider after affirming that you did, in fact, have sweets with you. You slipped into the room and set the bag on the desk. He was on it like a vulture, unwrapping packets and shoving the food in his mouth, hardly even chewing before he swallowed and reached for more.

There were so many things you wanted to say. You’re alive. You failed. How did it happen? You’re the strongest now. What does Hollow Technique Purple even mean? Are you alright? No, really, are you alright?

What you actually said was this: “You’ll choke.”

“No, I won’t,” he said between mouthfuls. “That’d be a stupid way to die.”

“There are very few stupid ways to die, and that’s not one of them,” you said.

“Is being attacked by a flock of geese?” he said.

“They are notoriously aggressive birds,” you said.

“Is slipping on a banana peel and breaking your neck?”

“Banana peels are serious threats to society.”

“Is —” His blithe tone dissipated in an instant, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. “Is being one of the strongest sorcerers and getting beaten by someone with no cursed energy at all?”

“Even the strongest sorcerers are still human,” you said. “If I were such a being, I would do well to remember that. Even if the world called me a monster or a god, I would have to keep in mind that I am only one person.”

“Then it doesn’t count as a stupid way to die in your mind?” he said.

“Heavenly Restrictions are no joke,” you said. “If I went out like that, I’d be proud.”

“Proud!” he said. “What pride is there in losing?”

“There’s pride in having fought at all,” you said. “That’s the important bit. If I’ve learned one thing from studying and from Nanami and the others, it’s that there’s no real winning in this life. There’s just those that continue to struggle and those that give up.”

“Things should be easy if you’re the strongest. I shouldn’t have to struggle,” he said.

“Then maybe that means you aren’t the strongest yet,” you said.

He contemplated this. “Well, I haven’t mastered the Domain Expansion.”

“Hm,” you said. You did not know what a Domain Expansion was, but Gojo seemed to think it was important, so you pretended like you did. “Massive shortcoming.”

“Exactly,” he said. “And I still need to work on my Infinity.”

“Oh, yeah,” you said. “You’ve gotta go to infinity and beyond.”

He did not even recognize the reference. “Yes! I need to go beyond the normal limits of the technique and take it to the next level if I want to be the strongest.”

“Sure,” you said. If he found solace in it, then who were you to tell him that that wasn’t quite what you had meant to say?

“You’re a helpful girl, Y/N. I knew there was a reason you were my favorite of the first years!” he said. “Also, thanks for the sweets.”

“Anytime,” you said, unable to keep up with his changes in mood and finding no point in trying. “Oh, it looks like Hinode just emailed me, so I should probably see what that’s all about, but I’m happy we could talk for a little bit.”

“See you around,” he said. “Expect a sandwich for your troubles.”

“I look forward to it,” you said, leaving Gojo’s room and opening up the email Hinode had sent you.

Subj.: URGENT Mission Alert

In the wake of Satoru Gojo’s power increase, curses with unprecedented levels of strength will begin to manifest. One such curse has already appeared at a nearby animal shelter, and we have been assigned with exorcising it. Bring the Sword of Syrinx.

Thx,

Kaito Hinode

#kashimo x reader #kashimo x you #kashimo x y/n #canon au #reader insert #hurricanes / hummingbirds #m1ckeyb3rry writes

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