19 Taste in Women

July 29, 2018

This round ended sooner than Gojo expected. It wasn't brute force that felled him, but a sudden flash of brilliance. Threads snaked out, too fast to track, slicing the air beside him. A feint. The real attack came from the other direction, a flicker of my hand, my threads slicing at his throat. Each strand hummed with tension, resonating in my hand like a taut bowstring.

He jerked back, the attack narrowly missing, but the triumph blazing through me was undeniable. He wasn't just dodging anymore; I'd forced him to react - a first.

"Not bad," he admitted, a grin spreading across his face. "You've definitely got something up your sleeve."

This was it. My cursed energy felt different - focused, surging with a newfound control that thrilled me. Was it my new relationship with Kugisaki? The weight of the solo missions looming? Whatever the spark, I'd stumbled across something vital.

Gojo moved into view again, a blur of white hair and amusement. "There's a shift in you," he said, his voice thoughtful despite the flippant smile. "Been like this for a few days now, around the time you and a certain classmate of yours took a little day trip..."

"Oh, come on!" Irritation flared, tinged with a heat that had nothing to do with the training. "You can't be jealous that I got a girlfriend."

Gojo's laughter was genuine this time. "If I wanted a girlfriend, Kaito, I'd have one. Don't flatter yourself."

He wasn't wrong. There was an odd disconnect between Gojo the strongest sorcerer and Gojo the annoying, nosy teacher. This wasn't about romance-he picked up on shifts that even I didn't fully grasp.

"So...you holding out, then? Waiting for someone special?"

Gojo paused. It felt strange, an unfamiliar silence between us. "I guess..." He trailed off, the usual flippant facade replaced by a curious flicker of self-reflection. "Maybe I am."

My heart skipped a beat. Gojo, admitting uncertainty? Something about his vulnerability, the same kind I saw in Kugisaki that fateful day, made me bolder.

"Strong girl?" I pressed. It was my turn to poke at him, a change from the usual power dynamic.

"Nah," a soft laugh escaped him. "Too stubborn for her own good. Kinda like someone you'd know."

For a moment, his eyes seemed to fix on me, a veiled message passing beneath the surface. It vanished as quickly as it came, the playful Gojo facade sliding back into place.

"But enough chatter," he chided. "Let's see if you can really throw me off." He gestured, the invitation to continue more loaded than his words.

This time, i rush forward, threads whipping out with newfound speed and precision. One, two, three - they slashed at him from impossible angles, my control pushing past any limits I'd encountered before.

Gojo moved with the same maddening ease, but there was a hesitance now, a shift in the rhythm of our dance. He couldn't be sure where the next attack was coming from, the threads too fast, too unpredictable.

And then I saw it - an opening, a microsecond where his defense shifted. One thread dove low, angled not for a strike to wound, but to pin him to the ground for a single instant.

The attack blurred - Gojo's mouth widened a fraction, a flicker of genuine surprise before the familiar blue shimmer of Infinity erupted around him. My thread struck true, but the impact barely registered, dissipated harmlessly by that invisible barrier.

"Well, well," Gojo drawled, the surprise fading, but his curiosity was burning brighter than ever. "That was something new."

A rush of adrenaline spiked through me. I'd caught him - not injured him, but caught him off guard in a way no one else could. Maybe this power I was stumbling upon could be more than just slashes and cuts, maybe it could be...deception.

"You're getting there," Gojo admitted, and even veiled in that constant casualness, it was praise.

"Thanks, had a good teacher," I shot back. 

Gojo's grin widened, then abruptly dissolved into a frown. "That's actually why we need to wrap it up. The Kyoto principal probably showed up like thirty minutes ago, and I gotta make sure that old man is taken care of."

"Alright, OH and guess what? I'm less than 12 hours from the timer running out on the bear challenge."

Even Gojo looked surprised by that. "Seriously? The seventy-two-hour one? Damn, Kaito, figured that'd take you 'til mid-August."

"I wanted to be the strongest, right?" 

Gojo nodded, a smirk pulling at his lips. "We'll double your training tomorrow then, to make up for today's short session and work on curse energy enhancement. Get ready to run yourself ragged."

"Bring it on," I said, my smirk matching his, "I'm always ready."

Gojo turned to walk towards the college. "I'm counting on it."

=====

(20 minutes later)

The courtyard felt too quiet. Panda paced the cobblestones, a worried growl rumbling in his throat. "Where is everyone?" he muttered, massive paws tracing uneasy circles.

Inumaki merely tilted his head. "Tuna mayo?" he offered, a touch of concern in his muffled voice.

Maki leaned on her staff, eyes narrowed. "Kaito's still with Gojo. The others..." She trailed off, then shrugged with feigned nonchalance. "Probably an errand. Nothing to worry about."

Panda's worry deepened the creases in his face. "But..." He hesitated, then lowered his voice, "The Kyoto principal is here. For the Exchange meeting."

Understanding dawned on Maki's face, her grip on the staff tightening. A ghost of that old anger flickered across her features. "Mai?" she breathed.

Inumaki stiffened. "Salmon."

"Don't jump to conclusions," Panda soothed, despite his own unease. "That old man wouldn't try anything overt - teachers got an image to uphold. But students..." He grimaced, the implications hanging heavily in the air. "Those Kyoto students... they do love their petty harassments, don't they?"

Maki's usual apathy dissolved, replaced by a tense watchfulness. The air between them crackled with memories of past humiliations, and the unspoken fear that even a 'simple errand' could turn bad with her twin back in the picture.

The silence was broken by Panda's determined sigh. "We'll find them. Make sure they're safe," he declared, a newfound resolve in his voice. "Those Kyoto punks won't pull anything with us around."

Maki's lips curled into a grim smirk, the familiar fire rekindling in her eyes. "Good. I was starting to get bored anyway."

Inumaki simply nodded, a single word resonating in the charged atmosphere: "Okaka."

======

"Why don't we have vending machines close? The hell they gotta be on the other side of the college for?" Kugisaki grumbled, pulling out her phone. A quick message to Kaito confirmed he'd just finished training and was showering.

Fushiguro shook his head, a hint of exasperation in his voice. "No way that'll happen. Vendor entry is limited around here," he explained. "Too much danger of someone messing with the stock, spiking the drinks."

Kugisaki rolled her eyes but tucked her phone away. "Well, they should at least move it closer to where we're actually training."

As she grumbled, Fushiguro couldn't help but notice her faint smile. "Is Murakami joining us?" he asked, a note of curiosity in his voice.

"Yup, just got out the shower. Ten minutes, maybe." A mischievous smirk played on her lips.

A flicker of surprise crossed Fushiguro's face. He knew Kugisaki and Kaito had been spending time outside of training, but there was a casual lightness in her tone that spoke of something more.

"Some shopping trip that must have been," he commented.

"No way the brooding Fushiguro is jealous?" she teased.

"Don't be ridiculous," he retorted, turning away to hide his expression. "It's just... with the Kyoto exchange coming up, time spent on frivolous things-"

"Frivolous?" Kugisaki interrupted, her voice sharp. "I earned a damn break. Besides, that distraction might just give him an edge against those Kyoto students."

Fushiguro turned, about to retort, when his eyes caught sight of two approaching figures. The first was a muscular man with a distinctive top-knot, a scar marring his face. Beside him walked a young woman who was a spitting image of Maki, save for the vibrant green hair and a defiant glint in her eyes.

"Why are you here, Zenin-senpai?" Fushiguro inquired.

Kugisaki's eyebrows went up. "Ah, so they're twins," she realized.

The woman, Mai, chuckled. "How unpleasant, Megumi. If you say that, no one will be able to tell us apart. Just call me Mai," she suggested, mockery dancing in her voice.

The scarred man's gaze swept over them. "So these guys are the ones replacing Okkotsu and the third years," he mused, a hint of disdain in his tone.

Mai let out a giggle, a touch of sadistic glee in her voice. "We were just worried about you guys, so we came with our principal. Your classmates died, right? Was it painful? Or not really?"

The blood drained from Kugisaki's face, her anger rising like a tidal wave. "I advise you to choose your next words carefully, senpai," she warned, her voice laced with ice.

Mai paused, taken aback slightly, but before she could reply, the man interjected. "Mai, stop talking about worthless things. I just want to know if these guys will be worthy replacements for Okkotsu," he declared bluntly.

He grinned, a predatory gleam in his eyes. "Megumi Fushiguro, what kind of woman is your type?"

Fushiguro blinked, momentarily thrown by the bizarre question. Before he could process it, the man ripped off his shirt, muscles bulging. "Depending on your answer, I'll beat you half to death right here and now. Okkotsu, hell, I'll even take the third years and drag them to this exchange," he declared with a feral grin. "I'm Aoi Todo by the way, and my type is a tall woman with a big ass!"

Kugisaki quickly sent a message to Kaito: 'Trouble. Get here ASAP.'

Fushiguro took a measured breath. "As long as that person has a moral compass that isn't easily swayed, I don't wish for anything else," he answered earnestly, buying time as he evaluated the situation.

Mai's expression softened momentarily. Nobara couldn't help but smile at his earnest response. "That's a good answer. If you said something like having a big ass, I'd actually kill you," she admitted.

Todo sighed theatrically. "As I expected, you're boring, Fushiguro." In a flash, he lunged forward, a powerful punch knocking Fushiguro clear across the courtyard.

"Poor Megumi. Even if he's a genius who enrolled as a second-grade sorcerer, he's nothing more than a first-year in front of Todo. There's no way he can win," she remarked with a hint of resignation. A flicker of something like longing crossed Mai's face. "I'll have to comfort Megumi later."

Kugisaki wasn't about to let those words stand. A fiery glare shot towards Mai. "I thought you and Maki were twins, but I was wrong. Maki is a hundred times more beautiful than you," she retorted acidly. Pivoting to face Mai fully, she added snidely, "Are you sleep-deprived? Your pores look huge."

Mai's composure cracked. Her eyes narrowed, and her hand going towards her side.  "I'll teach you..." she began, but her sentence was cut off as several nails materialized in front of her, their sharp points aimed directly at her face.

"Teach me what?" Kugisaki pressed. "How to make those under-eye bags even worse? You're gonna need to try harder than that, sweetheart."

Meanwhile, Fushiguro struggled to his feet, and saw Todo staring at him, ready for round two. 

"I knew you were boring the first time I saw you.  But you can't judge a book by its cover, right? That's why I asked you that question. And you trampled on my kindness."

The name 'Todo' ignited a spark of dread within Fushiguro. He'd heard the tales - this Kyoto student's ruthless efficiency during the Night Parade, the sheer power behind each strike. No wonder they called him a monster.

Fushiguro gritted his teeth. "Damn, so it's that Todo," he muttered, the words barely audible. Fear prickled his skin, but it was mixed with a desperate surge of adrenaline.  He had to try something.

A practiced motion, and Fushiguro began to focus his cursed energy. "Chimera... Plus toads. The well's unknown abyss," he incanted.

From the shadows, grotesque toad shikigamis with leathery wings began to materialize, their bulbous eyes gleaming. This was it - his opening. He gave the command, mentally directing the toads to swarm Todo.

But Todo didn't flinch. With unnerving calm, he closed the distance between them in a single, effortless stride. Before Fushiguro could even register the movement, he was off his feet, Todo's grip an iron vise.

The slam into the ground was like a thunderclap, pain exploding through Fushiguro's body. The world spun, the toads' croaks fading into a distant buzz.

"So flimsy, your body and taste in women," Todo's words cut through the haze, a cruel twist of the knife. 

Fushiguro tried to fight back, but his limbs felt like lead, and the darkness at the edge of his vision was creeping closer. He wasn't just outmatched, he was being toyed with. The realization was worse than any physical pain.

Kugisaki's voice echoed in the distance, but they sounded faint, far away. His last coherent thought was a panicked one: Where the hell is Kaito when you need him? 

Suddenly, Todo's eyes widened. With a twitch of excitement, he glanced upwards. "Okkotsu?" 

Before he could react, a blinding flash of movement blurred his vision. Threads, thick and taught, shot from above, wrapping around him in a tight cocoon. The pressure was crushing, rendering him completely immobile.

Fushiguro, dazed and propped up on one arm, squinted upwards. There, silhouetted against the afternoon sun, stood Kaito. The impossibility of it all - Kaito appearing to float in mid-air - barely registered in Fushiguro's battered mind.

"Yo, Fushiguro," Kaito's voice drifted down, "What did you do to piss this guy off?"

A wave of relief washed over Fushiguro, quickly followed by a surge of annoyance at Kaito's casual tone. He grimaced.  "He thinks...I have bad taste...in women."