The rich smell of miso broth and simmering vegetables filled the kitchen, curling softly into the living room.
Aimi ladled soup into bowls, the comforting clatter of spoons and cutting boards filling the warm evening air.
Click.
The sound of her window unlocking shoke through the house.
Aimi didn't bother looking up."You could at least use the door. Maybe ring the bell."
Gojo's familiar voice floated in, full of lazy amusement."Where's the fun in that~?"
"Right."
"Aimi-chan, guess what." He landed on her couch, kicking off his shoes with a casual thud.
"What?"
"You won't believe it. I found 10,000 yen on the street today. Just lying there. Like destiny! Free money!"
"Huh. Good for you." Aimi set the bowls down on the table, wiping her hands calmly. "Maybe you sucked up all my luck to get that."
Gojo blinked innocently. "Heh. Did I :3?"
She sat herself down, the faintest glint of amusement in her golden eyes."I got hit in the face with a baseball yesterday."
Gojo froze, halfway lowering himself into the chair across her.
"...No way."
She nodded. "I went to watch a baseball game at my old high school. A freshman threw it. Right between the eyes."
A beat of stunned silence.
Then Gojo howled with laughter, slamming his hand on the table like it was the funniest thing he had heard all year.He covered his face, still snickering uncontrollably."That's— that's amazing— and hilarious— Oh my god, Aimi-chan, that's peak comedy. I love that."
"It's your fault," she pretended to look sad poking her rice with the chopsticks. "I'll send you the hospital bill."
Gojo grinned. "I'll pay it with the 10,000 yen~"
She shook her head, the corner of her mouth twitched upward.
They settled into an easy, comfortable meal after that, the kind of quiet old friends shared.
Halfway through, Gojo leaned back lazily in his chair, his bowl half-empty.
"Ahem," he began, overly dramatic, "see, if you choose to become a sorcerer, stuff like that wouldn't happen to you. Your senses would be trained to be ultra, dora-dora sharp~" he made weird sound effects with a grin.
"I've been mindless these days," Aimi chewed. "But it's good that I didn't dodge. If that ball had hit anyone else, they might've died."
Gojo raised an eyebrow."It was a freshman, you said. How bad could it be?"
"Bad."
"Heh, maybe you're just weak~"
"If you really think so, stop trying to drag me into sorcery."
"It's one way to make you stronger," he shrugged.
Aimi thought for a moment. "Didn't you guys already say I don't have cursed energy or whatever? My strength would just come from brute force. I've trained that my whole life. Without magic, I don't think it'd change much."
Gojo twirled his chopsticks idly between his fingers. "Martial arts training and training to fight for your life against curses are two very different kinds of strength."
"Huh." She ate a few more bites, mulling that over.
Then: "Since I don't have it, mind telling me a little more about cursed energy?"
Gojo's face lit up like a child permitted to brag. "Your interest is piqued! Great!"
"Just curious," she pretends not to care.
He nodded, pleased. "Ever wonder where all the bad stuff in the world comes from?"
"My parents said it," she recalled. "Negative emotions."
"Bingo~!" he sang."Curses — those monsters — and cursed energy itself both come from that. Humans leak it without even knowing. Fear, anger, regret... all that emotional junk builds up and creates curses."
"Mhm."
"And sorcerers manipulate it," he nodded. "Foster it. Shape it into strength. They can also imbue cursed energy into objects for different purposes. Sometimes to curse, to grow a curse. Sometimes for functional stuff — like the glasses you wore."
Aimi nodded slowly. "Hmm... cursed objects."
Gojo's playful tone cooled a fraction. "Sometimes, a really strong curse can also stick to an object, turning into something dangerous. Like a bomb waiting to go off."
Aimi tapped her bowl lightly with her chopsticks. "Is it like that Sukuna finger you and the stressed-out man talked about?"
Gojo grinned. "You have incredible memory, Aimi-chan!"
"It was only a week ago."
He chuckled, resting his elbow lazily on the table. "Yeah. The Sukuna fingers are... a different case. It wasn't that a strong curse possessed fingers, but it was the fingers of a strong curse. They are special grade cursed objects. Parts of Ryomen Sukuna's body."
Aimi frowned slightly. "Ryomen Sukuna?"
Gojo nodded. "He was human sorcerer. Or at least, something close to it. But over time, he became more viscous than any curse. Sorcerers back then banded together to fight him, but even all of them combined couldn't defeat him properly. Eventually they did it, but when he died, his cursed energy was so strong that his body refused to decay. His fingers mummified into powerful cursed objects."
She stared at him for a long second."...And these are just out there? Lying around?"
"Some are sealed," Gojo lift a shoulder. "Some are hidden. Some... are still missing. We track them down when we can."
She looked so serious he had to laugh.
"But don't worry," he added, flashing a bright, almost mischievous grin. "With me here there is no fear! I can easily clean up those messes. Professional janitor of the supernatural, that's me."
Aimi exhaled into a soft laugh. Professional janitor of the supernatural is a wild job description.
"Ah did I just make Aimi-chan laughed??" he chanted, "I just made you laugh!! Now you owe me 3 strawberry cake!~"
"hah, where did that come from- I never agree to anything like th-"
"No no you I made you laugh, owe me cake. End of story."
She shook her head with a small silly smile, and stood up to clean. Gojo helped out-barely, as he continued to blabber about some weird maid cafes he found.