HE CAUGHT HER BODY BEFORE she could hit the ground.

He had no idea what had just occurred. His mind played back what had happened a few seconds ago: a second curse appeared, he killed both of them before they could overwhelm her, and suddenly she had passed out.

He looked over her arm where the first curse had scratched her. It wasn't that deep and there was no poison either. She didn't have any other injuries so why—

He bit the inside of his cheek. No. He knew why. The second they locked eyes, her face had suddenly been filled with so much terror that even he was left shaken by it.

Why was she so scared of him? She had never reacted that way to him—she had always been so sweet and happy to see him, a stark contrast to the more neutral reactions he got from his other students and co-workers.

But then she saw his eyes and everything changed.

"Hime," he whispered, jostling her in his arms a little bit. No response. He cursed under his breath and laid her down on the grass.

Should he wait for her to wake up? Should he take her to Shoko? He didn't even know if the latter was necessary since it wasn't like she was suffering from any external injuries. She had most likely fainted due to shock... or an overwhelming amount of fear that he had given her.

He kneeled over her body, scanning her up and down with an inquisitive look on his face. Had she seen eyes like his before? Was that why she was so scared? That couldn't be it. The Six Eyes were extremely rare, more rare than Limitless. She would've had to be over hundreds of years old to have seen anyone else with eyes like his.

Or maybe they had met before—it would certainly explain the familiar, almost nostalgic, feeling he would always get around her (he wondered if she felt the same thing too). But that couldn't be it either because he was a hundred percent sure he had never met her before.

With a sigh, he gave up on trying to make sense of things and just focused on waiting for her to wake up.

He looked back at her. Her face was pale—it always had been, but now it seemed to be glowing from the moonlight shining over them. With her pink lips and long lashes grazing her cheeks, the glow made her look somewhat ethereal in his opinion. But at the same time, that pure white glow made him feel like he was staring back at a corpse.

"Death becomes you..." He murmured to himself.

His gaze trailed even lower. Her breathing was steady, and he found himself watching intently as her chest moved up and down. He didn't know why, but the fact that she was breathing filled him with an abundance of relief that he didn't understand. He actually had to force himself to look back up so he could admire her face again.

Mizuhime was a bright and cheery student who couldn't seem to sit still, so seeing her so quiet and at peace was a rare sight that he found... eerie. Disturbing. He wanted her to open her eyes and be awake again.

Without even noticing it, his hand was reaching out to brush away the strands of blue hair that was over her face. The second he realized what he was doing, he froze.

"Mmgh..." Mizuhime suddenly let out a groan, abruptly pulling him away from his thoughts. Quickly before she could wake up, he retracted his hand, but kept himself hovering over her.

She finally came to, her eyes fluttering open as another soft groan left her lips. She looked around dazedly before finally locking eyes.

The terror came back.

With a choked gasp, she hastily pushed him away from her and scrambled back, her whole body shaking like a leaf.

"Hime!" He called out. "It's okay, it's just me!"

He reached out for her, wanting to grab her before she could fall into the river—not the water, not the water! A voice in his head screamed in full-blown panic—but she flinched away and let out a terrified shriek, tears threatening to fall.

Right. His eyes. He hurriedly reached over for his blindfold which he had tucked away into his pocket and used it to cover his eyes once more. "They're gone, see? Everything's okay. You're fine."

The sight of his eyes being covered sent a wave of relief through her, and she didn't know why. All she knew was that it was like she could finally breathe again. Her heart was still racing though, and that numb, prickly feeling coursed through her fingertips.

Now that his eyes were covered, she was suddenly shoved back into reality, memories of her reaction blurring through her head. She didn't know why her body reacted that way, but it was out of her control and out of her depth.

"I—I'm s-sorry, sensei...!" She managed to choke out between her sobs. "I don't know... I don't know...!"

She covered her face with her hands, but he could see the tears slipping between her fingers and falling down the grass.

"It's okay," he shushed her quietly, carefully crawling over to her. In the next second, he had her wrapped up in his arms, one hand keeping her head tucked under his chin.

This was completely inappropriate especially since she was a female student and he was an older man, but since when did he ever give a shit about society and their stupid rules anyways? He was the strongest man in the world, he could do whatever he wanted and right now, he wanted to comfort her. Screw what people would think.

Yeah... He agreed, holding her tighter.

He was the best. The strongest. The greatest. He could do whatever he wanted.

It wasn't like anyone could ever stop him anyways.

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

Mizuhime saw his eyes again. It was like staring at a pair of pale sapphires; they were beautiful, but haunting at the same time.

She couldn't pry her gaze away from them. They stared back at her and suddenly she felt like she was falling back in slow-motion. The eyes grew farther and farther, widening in horror. There was a shout, followed by a splash of water as her vision began to blur.

And then—

—And then she woke up.

She shot up with a gasp. It took her a while to realize that she was in her room, her eyes finally taking in the sight of familiar beige walls and blue decor.

She thought back to last night. The curses, Gojo's eyes, and her sudden breakdown that neither of them had been expecting. She didn't remember ever going back to the dorms, so she figured that she must have fallen asleep after crying her eyes out and Gojo had taken her back to her room.

Looking down, she noticed that her clothes had been changed as well. The workout clothes were gone, replaced with a nightdress from her closet.

Her brows furrowed in confusion. Was... was this sort of thing allowed? None of her old tutors had ever done such a thing back home. In fact, they never even touched her, unlike Gojo who didn't seem to care about personal boundaries. The tutors back home always made sure to keep their distance, but then again, her father might have ordered them to do so since he was protective like that. So maybe it was normal for teachers outside of home to be touchy...?

And then another thing caught her eye. On her bicep was a large, bright pink bandaid with cartoon teddy bears on it. Another thing Gojo must have put on her.

Slowly, she got out of bed, only to pause when she spotted something neon blue on her nightstand. It was a post-it note.

Good morning, Hime-chan!

After what happened last night, I decided it was best to give you a day off so yay! No school or training! You'll be excused for the homework too! You get to have the whole Monday to yourself so rest up and get better soon!

Love,

Your favorite sensei!

PS: What happened yesterday wasn't your fault, so don't feel down about it.

Underneath that was a messily drawn heart along with a stick figure which she realized was supposed to resemble him.

(He was great at a lot of things but drawing definitely wasn't his strong suit.)

She set the sticky note back down, her thoughts muddled with the events that had transpired the night before. Her dream, or at least tidbits of it, were still fresh in her head as well.

She wasn't going to deny it now. She had seen eyes like his before, but she didn't know from whom. It was weird though; she was sure she had seen someone with eyes like his, but at the same time, she knew she hadn't. She spent fifteen years of her life stuck inside the Uchiumi Estate where the only faces she would see were her parents, her tutors, and the other servants and she knew none of them had the same crystal blue eyes as Gojo's (she definitely would've remembered someone with such unique looking eyes).

Yet she felt like she knew those eyes. Knew them so well that she could see the horrors that laid beneath them—

"Ugh..." She groaned softly, placing a hand over her head.

She doubted she was ever going to piece any of this together; the who, the what, the when, the why. It was better to just... sleep it off.

Yeah. It was still a bit early, she could just afford to take a short nap. Plus, she had the day off anyway and Gojo did tell her to rest up.

Crawling back to bed, she tucked herself under the comforter, eager to fall asleep and (momentarily) forget about all of her troubles.

The next time she woke up was to the sound of a fist pounding against her door.

"'M coming...!" She mumbled, hastily scrambling out of bed. She blindly felt around for her slippers only to stub her toe on the bed frame.

"Ow!" She hissed. Forgoing the slippers, she decided to just hop over to the door barefoot, one hand groping the walls for balance and the other rubbing her eyes to look at least somewhat presentable.

She swung the door open, only to blink in surprise when she saw Megumi in his workout clothes.

"Oh? Hi, Gumi-chan." She greeted him, managing to send him a tired smile.

His cheeks were pink as he scowled at her. "What are you wearing?"

She looked down. The nightdress she wore—or more specifically, the nightdress Gojo put on her—was a wrinkled, crumpled mess but it didn't show anything amiss. Nevertheless, Megumi refused to keep eye contact with her and instead barged into her dorm and slammed the door shut behind him.

"You were absent from today's training," he began. "And apparently you were absent in class too."

Mizuhime's eyes widened a little. Hold on, how much time had passed? She glanced at the clock on the wall and grimaced. It was almost eight o'clock now. She had slept through breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some 'short nap' she took.

"Gojo was acting weird too," he continued. "He's always weird, but this time he was quiet and didn't act as stupid. What happened last night while I was gone?"

Do I tell him about my reaction to Gojo's eyes? She wondered.

He mistook her silence for something else and scratched the back of his neck, glancing off to the side to avoid looking at her. "Look, I'm only asking because it's getting in the way of my training, alright? Gojo was barely paying attention to anything today and I'd rather not have to deal with it all the time."

"Ah, well... yesterday, he took me out to exorcise a Grade 3 curse," she explained. "And, um, this other one appeared and it took me off guard... I guess he just... felt guilty about what happened...?"

And now she was feeling guilty for lying to him. Or omitting part of the truth. Nevertheless, she felt that her reaction to seeing Gojo's eyes was something to keep to herself. She didn't really want to go around telling people that it triggered her to have a small breakdown...

Megumi fell silent at this. She glanced over at him. He seemed to grow pensive at her words. After a few seconds of silence, he finally asked her:

"Why do you want to be a sorcerer?"

"Huh?" The question caught her off guard.

"This... this career... this whole thing... you're not suited for it," he stated seriously, looking straight into her eyes. She couldn't seem to look away from the sharp greenness of them, his eyes seemingly cutting into her soul. "You're a good person. This sort of job would ruin you."

They had known each other for about a month now—though to be honest, Megumi knew more about her than she did about him. In his defense, he was a private person and she was just too open.

He knew a lot about her, and the first thing he learned was that Mizuhime leaned more on the 'good' spectrum like his sister did. She was too nice, kind of dumb at times, and had a disturbing level of ignorance on how the world worked. She honestly reminded him of an abandoned newborn duckling taking its first steps around the cold harsh world with no proper guidance on how to navigate it.

Clueless, innocent, and vulnerable. Painfully, painfully vulnerable.

"It's not just the curses that can put our lives in danger, but other sorcerers too," he continued, the dark look on his face never leaving. "There's no such thing as a 'good' sorcerer, none of the people here are heroes. We're a corrupt society, we kill people. So why... why are you here?"

Mizuhime looked down. "To be honest..." She trailed off, swallowing thickly. "I hadn't been aware of what it meant to be a 'sorcerer'. Two months ago, before I started school, a bunch of sorcerers would come to my house and ask for my attendance at either of the schools. Until now, I have never stepped foot outside of my home. I was never allowed to so for years I would always yearn to go outside and explore the world. When those sorcerers came, I realized it was my chance to leave. Gojo-sensei was the one who helped persuade my father to finally let me go and I'll be forever grateful to him for that."

His eyes widened as realization dawned on him. He recalled Gojo's words from their very first training session: "I was the one who rescued her from her terrible situation back home, like a knight saving his princess from the locked tower! And gosh Gumi—she's never even been outside until I came into the picture...!"

He was serious about that? He thought. I didn't think he meant it literally...!

She kept her head bowed, twiddling with her fingers nervously. "I hadn't expected being a sorcerer to be so hard, but I don't want to give up now. Not after I was blessed with this freedom. Besides, I feel like if I were to give up and go home, I would be letting Gojo-sensei down."

"That's..." He trailed off.

Megumi had a wish, and that was to protect the people who were good. The people who deserved to be protected. He was picky about those he wanted to save and he knew it was selfish of him, but it wasn't like he thought of himself as a hero anyway.

Megumi wanted to protect good people, and Uchiumi Mizuhime was a good person. But she was also an idiot, and a suicidal one at that who wanted to become a sorcerer—which was probably the deadliest profession you could have.

Which meant...

"Senpai..." He quietly groaned, running a hand through his hair. "You are such a handful."

She blinked. "What?"

"Nothing," he said, looking away.

This world was shitty and unfair, and she was a complete dumbass who had yet to realize it, but... but he could at least make sure it wouldn't be that way for her.

She hummed, looking back at the clock. "Well, if we're done here, I should probably go find Gojo-sensei. I don't want him feeling bad about what happened."

She tried to walk past him, but he gingerly grabbed her shoulder and carefully pushed her back.

"Senpai... at least get dressed into something more appropriate." He sighed heavily.

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

After getting dressed into something Megumi deemed more appropriate, the two parted ways. Mizuhime rushed out of her dorm, now glad that she had taken her kohai's advice to put on something more warm. It was certainly a little chilly tonight.

It wasn't that hard to look for Gojo. All she had to do was look for the shock of white hair that contrasted with the dark background.

And that was when he found him, walking around campus with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched over a little.

"Ah, Gojo-sensei!" She called out.

He froze, and looked up to see her jogging over to him. "Hime-chan...?" He pulled his hands out of his pockets and stared down at her in mild surprise. "It's cold out... You came to see me?"

"Yeah... Gumi came over to visit me, and he mentioned something about you feeling down. I just... um, I guess I wanted to see if you were okay? Was it about what happened yesterday? It wasn't your fault, sensei, you didn't know about the other curse or how I would react to seeing your..." She gulped. "Your eyes."

His face fell into something serious. "Right. About that..." He trailed off. She could tell that he was looking at her and was thankful that he was still wearing his blindfold. "Mizuhime, do you think we've met before?"

"Met before? I...?" A troubled look crossed over her face. "No, I'm certain we haven't. Until now, I've only ever stayed within my home. Unless you decided to take a swim in the sea where I might've come across you or you've visited before, then no, we've never met."

He nodded in agreement, deep in thought. "I was thinking the same thing too... yet I can't help the feeling that we've met. Since I first saw you, you've just... something about you is familiar to me. And seeing how you reacted to my eyes cemented the idea that we've met before, yet it's like you said, it couldn't be possible."

Mizuhime fell silent, not knowing what else to say.

Suddenly Gojo flashed her his usual smile, his back straightening. "Neh, Hime-chan..."

"Hmm?"

He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her closer, leaning down to whisper, "Do you believe in reincarnation?"

She froze up. "W-what...?"

"The idea that after a person dies, they can be reborn again," he explained, his lips tugging upwards. "Some theorize that it's the same soul in a different body, while others say it's the same soul in the same body. The latter makes more sense; the mind, body, and soul are always connected after all."

Mizuhime found it hard to breathe. She could feel his eyes piercing into her, even through the blindfold. "...I-I don't know sensei..."

He let out a humming noise before finally pulling away, his hand falling back to his side as he flashed her yet another dazzling smile. "I think reincarnation could be possible. Curses are a thing, so why can't reincarnation? Now, do I think that could be the answer to our case? Who knows! Nevertheless, we certainly are an interesting pair, don't you think, Hime-chan?"

She really had no idea where he was going with this so she just nodded and responded with a nervous, "Er, yes, sensei?"

He chuckled and patted her on the head. "Thanks for coming out here to make sure I was okay. You're such a cute student, looking out for your poor sensei!" He pinched her on the cheek, inwardly marveling at the squishiness of it, before releasing her and watching as the pale skin quickly turned red.

"It was no problem?" She said, though it sounded more like a question.

He threw an arm over her shoulders. "Let sensei take you back to your dorm, okay? It's getting late, and it's not safe for little girls like you to be out in the dark alone!"

(It was much too late for her though. She was the one who had foolishly approached the most dangerous man in the world.)

— author's note —

So Mizuhime's overall goal is to just enjoy her freedom and explore the world (or as much of it as she can). I feel like that would be more realistic compared to the usual protagonist goals of 'becoming the best', 'saving everyone', or 'changing the world'. Lol, I think that's the thing about JJK, most of the characters' goals are simple and realistic.

Yandere shit hasn't happened yet (sorry, I'm slow), but now that Gojo's acting sus to Mizuhime and Megumi decided that Mizuhime must be protected... 🌝 Expect the yandere shit to happen soon.

Mizuhime: *having a breakdown*

Gojo: You're mine now! 🤗

Oh and another thing! YUTA FINALLY APPEARS NEXT CHAPTER! THE GOAT! THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND!!!! 😍

Any guesses on what kind of yandere he'll be???