Chapter Text
One Curse For Another
Hurts.
Can't move, weak.
Tired. No swarm
No one
Swarm?
..Passenger?
Tried to reach out, tried to react, nothing.
"なぜ彼女をここに連れてきたのですか 五条さん?"
A voice! Enemy.
No, what?
Fight
Can't see, can't open eyes. Too heavy.
Too weak
"どういう意味ですか。明らかに、私はあなたに彼女を癒してほしい。"
Another voice, a different voice, another enemy.
Fight
"私は死を癒すことはできません、ばか。頭に2発の銃声?彼女は行ってしまいました。その上、彼女は魔術師ではありません。"
FIGHT
Finally, movement! A wild jerk of limbs, lashing out to where the voices were. The enemies. All enemies.
"ハ!翔子、彼女は強くて、戦うことができると言った。そして、あなたがそれを感じることができなくても、彼女は呪われたエネルギーを持っています、私は言うことができます。"
A sigh.
"いい。何ができるか見ていきます。"
Warmth. A touch. ENEMY
A soothing pulse. Seemed almost familiar.
Tired
Slipping back under the darkness. A smothering blanket.
fight
Where..
Who..
What? My eyelids finally found the strength to pull up, grungy and sticky, but open. I found myself staring up at a fluorescent light, bright, sending pain stabbing through my eyes and back into my temples. I couldn't keep the low groan of pain in as I turned my head from the light, slowly, trying not to exacerbate the pain in my head and the stiffness in my neck.
As my vision cleared from the blinding light, I got a better look at my surroundings. A few beds, thin and plain. Stools, metal and low to the ground. Sinks, stone and metal.
A hospital room? How did I get here?
My mind and memories were jumbled, cracked open and bleeding details. Had to think. Had to make sense of it. The last thing I remembered was
Gold light
Jailbroken power
Control
SCION
"This was it. Finally, everyone was working together."
I couldn't stop the heaving of my gut, revulsion drawing what seemed like pure acid up my throat. Bile and burning flowed up and out my mouth and nose, my body too weak to turn over.
No no no no, this isn't right!
It was supposed to be over. Contessa was supposed to have finished this. Choking on my own self-hate and stomach acid, I found I couldn't flip myself. Too weak, down an arm that could feel the sheets of my apparent hospital bed dragging at the melted stump, but couldn't leverage any movement..
No more! No more! I chose to die! Damn you, Contessa, it was supposed to be over!
As my vision faded with the lack of oxygen, unable to clear my airway, I heard a voice, female, shouting. This was a fine way to go. Ignominious, like I deserved.
No more. Please. Brian, Aster, Lisa, please, no more.
fight
Oh no.
Waking up was easier this time. Less pain, less confusion. It didn't mean I was happy about it though.
I once again opened my eyes to fluorescent lights in the ceiling of the hospital I seemed to be recovering in, but this time the light was significantly more bearable. That was about the only thing that was more bearable though. Why had Contessa left me alive, where had she dumped me, who had saved me? All questions I would need answered. Answers I wouldn't get laying here.
With a deep-throated groan of effort and no small amount of pain, I hauled my body up into a semblance of a sitting position with my remaining arm.
"Hurghk!"
Ah, ow.
From my new posture I started to take a better look around, until I spotted a woman in a white coat not ten feet away and froze like the proverbial deer in headlights.
Shit, how did I not notice her?! Oh.
The realization was a bit late, but now I knew, now it was clear.. I couldn't sense any bugs. My power, my passenger, was gone. My power and parasite. It felt like realizing I'd lost my arm, again. My thoughts were cut short when the woman stood from where she had been leaning against another bed. She seemed like fairly short woman, though based on her East Asian features that was likely mostly an observation I had only due to my own height. She had dark hair and eyes, and she looked like she needed a good night's sleep.
"私が言うことを分かりますか？" At my blank stare, What is that, Japanese? her face turned to a slightly put-out expression. Growing up in Brockton Bay had lent itself to some sort of understanding of various Asian languages, mostly as a survival mechanism, but hardly enough to be a fluent speaker of any of them.
"ああ、私の英語はひどいです、ちょっと待ってください." At more words I didn't get, and with an impatient huff, the woman reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a cell phone.
Shit, what am I supposed to do if she calls for backup, or someone more hostile? I was way too weak to put up a fight, and had no power, not even my equipment. No knife or baton, what was I supposed to do?
fight
She put the phone up to her ear as whoever was on the other side clearly picked up and spoke, "五条、彼女は目を覚ましている" then immediately hung up.
Huh?
Without my swarm to shunt my excess reactions into, I couldn't keep my confusion off my face. In response, she held up one finger in a seemingly nigh-universal 'wait' signal.
Alright, so be it. The more time I got to sit and recover, the better. Hopefully it would be a while before whatever, whoever, she called worsened my situation. I wasn't to be that lucky however, as hardly a minute, maybe two, passed that another arrived.
"Hellooooo theere!" Cried out a voice in stereo with the door leading out of the room crashing inwards with a clang of metal on stone, making me jump half out of my skin. The speaker, and apparently kicker, was a man in dark clothes with a mane of fluffy white hair that seemed to stick straight up from his head, and wearing a black blindfold. He was very tall, spoke in a loud voice, and walked in such a way that screamed arrogance as he sauntered across the room towards me and the other woman.
"How ya doin' sleeping beaut.." he cut himself off with a light chuckle "..sleepy head?" Well screw you too. I may have long since gotten over my self-image problems, but that didn't mean he had to be an asshole.
"I'd be doing a lot better with some answers." My voice was as creaky and cracking as the rest of me, unfortunately. "and some water."
My answer was met with a smug grin and a light head tilt.
"No problem" he said breezily, "Shoko'll take care of it." He turned his head to the woman in the doctor's coat, 'Shoko' evidently, and spun out a quick burst of what I was increasingly sure was Japanese. She gave him a look that screamed 'unamused' and turned to walk across the room, to a sink. It seemed this guy was rude to everyone.
"My name is Gojo Satoru." he said, turning back to me. "As I am the one who found you and got you to help, as well as the most fluent speaker of English available, I'll be handling things from here on." He said his name like I was supposed to recognize it, in the same way one might announce a celebrity, or world-wide known cape. At least he seemed to be correct about his multilingualism. I could barely catch a hint of an accent in his speech.
As Shoko returned with a small paper cup of water Gojo spoke again. "In order to keep this short and sweet as can be, I'll summarize what happened and where we are now, then you and I will talk about anything you're unclear on, and cover what comes next. Fair?" His voice was light and unbothered, but the way he asked, well, it didn't seem like there was much alternative.
As I finished up my cup of water, I responded, "Fine. Fair. Go ahead." My tone was still a little short, and my voice was still a little rough, but I didn't want to ask Gojo to ask Shoko for more water. She probably dealt with him too much as it was.
"First things first," Gojo drawled as he reached back with one long leg to drag the nearest stool to him. "Name?"
"Taylor Hebert"
"Well, Taylor, about a month ago, as I went about my merry way, I saw a spike of energy I didn't recognize." He made this sound significant as he plopped onto the stool.
Saw? Maybe he's got tinker-tech in that blindfold or something. Also, a month!? I've been in a coma for a month. This realization was not terribly pleasant, but it could be worse. It could've been longer, I'd been shot in the head after all, not to mention whatever effects Amy jailbreaking my passenger had had. I'd woken with no restraints on, as well, and no one was attacking me. Yet.
"When I went to investigate," he continued, "I saw a brief flash of light, and heard a pair of gunshots, then suddenly a young lady with dark hair fell to the ground in front of me. I went to check on her, and got a brief look into what seemed a very far away place as the..'door' in open air closed on a woman in a hat." Contessa "She looked surprised to see me."
I couldn't keep the displeasure off my face at this. I rotated on the hospital bed to face him more fully, and let my legs dangle off the side. I was in what looked like a hospital gown, but that didn't matter right now.
It's your fault then. My thoughts turned a little more erratic. As they did, my anger rose, and threatened to curdle into hate as I glowered at the man, Gojo, who had stolen the death I chose. He either didn't notice my feelings, or more likely didn't care, and continued his story.
"Well, then I went to help the girl, and realized she.." At this I lost patience and cut in.
"You can stop pretending it wasn't me." I hissed at him. He was already on my shit list, and his storytelling style was getting old fast.
He pouted, actually pouted at me, "Fine. You had been shot in the head." I know that part. "I basically wrote you off then and there, not much to be done about that, but then I caught a look at your eyes."
My eyes?
"I saw the fight you had in you. Down a limb, bleeding out of your head, I saw your will to fight." fight Shows what he knows. I had wanted nothing more in that moment than to die.
"That was when I knew you were strong. So I brought you to Shoko here, and she healed you. It was rough going as I understand it. Still, here you are, recovered and coherent. With more Cursed Energy than I was expecting, as a bonus."
"And where is 'here'? " I asked.
"I was getting to that," he said, sounding and looking lightly offended. "We are currently in the recovery facility of Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, where we train up-and-coming Jujutsu Sorcerers."
..What?
My confusion must have been readily visible, because Gojo smirked and said "I know you don't know what any of that is, but we'll get there. First we have to establish who we all are, and what we want."
"Okay," I responded, my voice smoothing with use, "You first. Who are you? What do you want?"
The smugness in his expression didn't shift as he proclaimed, "I am Gojo Satoru, I am the strongest, and I want you to join Jujutsu High, learn how to use your Cursed Energy, what your Innate Technique may be if you have one, and help me change the world."
"You want me, a girl you don't know anything about, to help you change the world?" My voice was incredulous. I was deliberately ignoring all the 'sorcery' and 'cursed whatever' crap he was spewing, plenty of people had weird ideas for where powers came from. Myrddin, a prominent member of the Protectorate, had touted long and loud that powers were magic once upon a time.
For the first time since our conversation started, Gojo's face dropped into a somewhat more serious mien. "I do. You're strong, I know it."
I actually didn't have a rebuttal for that. I was a lot of things, strong..might be on the list. I didn't feel strong though.
Before I could think of something to say, his face picked back up and he said "Your turn."
"I am Taylor Hebert and.." I trailed off.
Who am I?
Taylor, Skitter, Weaver, whatever I had become at the end. Victim, Villain, Hero, monster. I didn't know. My powers, my passenger was gone, that I knew. There had been not one twinge of anything about any bugs that may be nearby. If there was one thing my power had taught me, it was that bugs were everywhere, even hospitals.
What do I want?
I had wanted to die not so long ago. Did I still? I still felt sick with guilt, with fear, with regret. But did I want to die?
I don't know.
"That's just fine," Gojo said, and I realized I'd said that last part out loud. "Lots of people, Sorcerers included, have to find out who they are, and what they want." His face was not as serious as I'd seen it a few moments ago, but he also didn't sound overly flippant.
"Did you?"
At this, his face dropped a little more. I couldn't see his eyes, but I got the sense they were contemplative. "Yes. Yes I did." He shook it off quickly and said "So, what do you say, mystery girl? Taylor? Ms. Hebert? We can give it some time, you can learn Japanese, some Jujutsu, and I'll prove I'm right about you."
As he made this offer the man named Gojo Satoru, self-proclaimed strongest stood to his full height and held out a hand to me.
As I stared at his long-fingered hand, I felt something rise in my chest. I ignored his hand and slid off the hospital bed, my month long coma weakened legs could barely hold me up, but though they wobbled, I stood up straight and looked Gojo in where his eyes would be through his blindfold.
A rising something in my chest. A feeling. A feeling I could name.
Resolve.
I have to try, don't I? Maybe find out what happened after Gold Morning, where Contessa went, maybe find out about Earth Bet and.. and my dad. I have to try. I can always die another day if I really need to.
As I stood there meeting his hidden gaze, Gojo's face grew even more pleased. I think he knew my answer.