Chapter 46: Chapter 42 - Aftermath
After leaving, Sachiko headed back to Hunter x Hunter world. First, she knew she needed to heal her arm and take a long rest to cool her head down.
Despite her anger at Satoru, she also could feel that there was something else happening at that hospital. Because otherwise, System wouldn't have acted up with the reason being energy disturbances. There was a chance that something out of her or maybe even Satoru's control had been happening back then.
Sachiko fell onto the bed with a sigh. She was now back in her room at Heavens Arena as she had headed here before her travel to Jujutsu Kaisen world.
She checked if the System was back to normal and sighed in relief when she found that it had returned to normal.
[Curse points : 100950]
So, she did get a lot of curse points.
"System, upgrade my cursed energy reserves."
[Cursed energt reserves have been upgraded.]
[Name: Nakamura Sachiko
Alias: None.
Age: 19
Relationships: Gon Freecs (Close Friend), Killua Zoldyck (Adopted brother), Kurapika (Friend), Leorio (Friend), Hisoka (Rivals), Illumi (Enemy), Geto Suguru (Enemy), Gojo Satoru (Romantic Interest), Wing (Acquaintance), Zushi (Acquaintance).
Assets 224.7 million yen, 800 million jenny house, 3.75 billion jenny.
Hunter level: C
Jujutsu sorcerer level: Lower Special Grade
Cursed technique: Cursed energy manipulation (Proficient), Time Manipulation Eyes (Competent), Nullify (Competent), Pain killer (Proficient), Reverse Cursed Technique (Proficient).
Cursed energy: 50,000/50,000
Cursed energy reserves rank: B
Nen Techniques: Ten (Proficient), Ren/Ken (Proficient), Zetsu (Proficient), Gyo (Proficient), Ko (Proficient), Ryu (Proficient), In (Competent), Shu (Proficient), En (Advanced Beginner).
Nen Abilities: Sticky Steel Threads (Conjuration).
Nen Type: Manipulator, Transmuter.
Aura pool: 73,000 / 92,000 units.
Curse points: 99950.
Hunter points: 220.
Cursed tools: Special Grade Scythe.
Skills Intermediate Sword Skill (Competent), Assassins Art: Shroud (Competent), Assassins Art: Silent gaits, Rhythm Echo (Competent). Disguise (Novice).
Abilities: Enhanced sense: Eyesight, Super Hearing, Superior Strength (20x), Enhanced Reflexes, Pain resistance.]
Checking at the stats, Sachiko noticed several improvements in her own. For example, because she relied on nen to fight later on, she had levelled on Ryu and Shu to proficient level. And because of her healing herself in real-time battle and stopping the injuries from worsening, she also levelled up Reverse Cursed Technique and Pain Killer to proficient as well.
All in all, it could be said that the fight wasn't a loss for her. In fact, it had helped her become a lot stronger than before and it wasn't just limited to the level ups in techniques. Sachiko could feel that her mental fortitude improved a lot and that would definitely help her in battles later on.
"Now that I got my cursed energy back, let's try healing this arm." Sachiko muttered as she looked at her missing right arm. It felt a little strange to not have an arm anymore and Sachiko defintely wanted her arm back if she could.
After nullifying the effects left by the curse's cursed technique, Sachiko started to use Reverse Cursed Technique. Her severed arm started to grow back at a visible speed and maybe because her Reverse Cursed Techniwye had become proficient level, the process was much smoother.
It didn't take long for the arm to be back in pristine condition and Sachiko nodded in statisfaction.
She took out the phone she used in Jujutsu Kaisen world and looked at Satoru's contact information.
Seeing how she wasn't permanently affected on a negative way by the whole ordeal, Sachiko relaxed a little and thought.
Maybe she could give Satoru another chance to talk when she got back to Jujutsu Kaisen world and try to get to the bottom of the whole deal.
------------
Sachiko spent the day resting and playing some games. The next day, she decided to look for some bounty hunts and found that there were a few interesting ones.
The first one was to capture 30 bandits and the leader was a nen user. Sachiko was pretty excited about it so she began preparations straight away.
She wanted to try a different look on her adventures so she started practicing Disguise and after two days, she got it to Competent level.
As she got better at Disguise, Sachiko found that she could use Disguise on her left eye to make it look like her normal hazel eyes.
"That means I can finally skip the bandage or eyepatch?" Sachiko was quite excited about that.
Once the preparations were done, she headed straight to the bandit's lair. Making use of Shroud, she got close to the place and then set up her Sticky Steel Threads in place to ensure no one could escape unscathed.
Soon, Sachiko could capture all the bandits without much difficulty and she had fun using her Nen ability.
For the next few days, Sachiko focused on practicing In to better conceal the conjured Sticky Steel Threads and went on a few more bounty hunts.
And when one week was over, she decided to head to Jujutsu Kaisen world again.
-----------------
As soon as she was back in Jujutsu Kaisen world, Sachiko checked the time and of there were any new messages.
To her surprise, the time wasn't exactly the same as when she left and there were several new messages.
"Could it be that...time no longer stops when I travel between worlds?" Sachiko muttered. As she asked the system, she soon got an answer.
[That is the case. Please make sure to keep track of the timeline when you make plans from now on, host.] System replied.
"Dang, I was looking forward to extending the time by making use of the time stop so that I'd get twice as much time before fighting Hisoka.." Sachiko sighed. It seemed that System had caught on her taking advantage of the loophole several times. Or what happened back at the abandoned hospital had affected the System in some way.
With a sigh, Sachiko decided to leave that for now until she could figure out what the exact reason was. She checked the messages and saw that all of them were from Gojo Satoru.
"Hey, I know you're mad but don't block me, alright?"
"Hey, it's been a few days and just wanted to check on you. How're your injuries? Are you feeling better?"
"Hello? You still there? Did you throw away your phone instead of blocking me?"
"Sachiko?"
"Oh god, you threw your phone away for real? You're not going to talk to me anymore?"
"I know that prank was stupid..I really do. Just talk to me if you haven't thrown your phone away. Okay? I'll even let you scream at me all you want."
"Heyyy...I'm going back to Tokyo tomorrow. Do u wanna maybe meet up with me one last time and yell at me? It's crazy but I want to see you again before I go back."
Sachiko read all the messages and shook her head. The last message he sent was three days ago so he probably went back already.
Sachiko hesitated for a while to message him back but she had a feeling that if she didn't, she might not see him again.
It felt strange that she was so hurt and angry that all she wanted was to not see him again but now, she would feel bad if that was the last time she could see him.
Maybe as she realized there could be more to the whole incident, she wanted to talk to him again and maybe work things out a little.
"Did you leave the city already?" She found herself texting back.
The reply came sooner than she expected as it was only a few minutes later when he replied.
"Sachiko? God, I thought you actually threw your phone away."
Then, another message came, "Are you still in the city or did you already go to another?"
Sachiko sighed, "I'm still at that city. You?"
"Tokyo." Satoru replied, "Kinda have an oversea trip tomorrow. It would take like a week there."
"I see," Sachiko replied.
"You wanna meet me tonight? I could come over." Satoru's message said, "It'd be pretty late, but we could talk."
"Alright." Sachiko agreed. If she waited until he came back from his trip, she would have to go back to H x H world for one week and come back, which would be two weeks.
But, she didn't want to wait two weeks for a conversation.
"See you then." Satoru replied.
-----------------
They ended up meeting at the same hotel because Sachiko didn't want to tell him about her rented house and having to explain about her trainings in Nullify. So, a hotel room had to do.
Opening the door, Sachiko saw him sitting on the bed.
"Hi, Satoru.." She said.
Satoru's face lit up when he saw her walking in and especially when he saw that her arm was restored.
"Hey, I see you're all healed up now." He said.
"Yeah, I guess." Sachiko replied.
The room was silent again. Sachiko could tell Satoru looked relieved to see her but he was much more guarded than she remembered at the same time.
There were no weird nicknames or no clingy , flirty attempts from him which just felt strange for her, even if she knew she was the one who told him to drop those.
"I didn't mean for all of that to happen." Satoru started after a while of silence, "I just wanted to see how strong you really were and ...if you could keep up with me, in case we spend more time together.." He admitted, "Since I first met you, I knew that there was something about you and I wanted to get to know you better.. And after all that, I thought maybe...just maybe..we could hang out more and just.."
Satoru wanted to say the words, but he couldn't.
"I thought I could just bat in and save you even if things go wrong." Satoru said instead, "But when they did, I couldn't."
Sachiko asked, "Why couldn't you, Satoru?"
Satoru pondered for a moment before finally saying, "There was a barrier. Separating me from that room. No matter how I tried to break it, I couldn't get through it to get to you."
"A barrier?" Sachiko wasn't expecting this answer. She had thought Satoru just hesitated a little too much and found her late. She didn't know there was actually a barrier stopping him.
"I know it's hard to believe. But, I really didn't mean for it to end like that. Hell, you gotta believe I didn't want to hurt you like that. I know I said you were amusing but I didn't mean it in a way I enjoy watching you like that.." Satoru said.
"Satoru, then why didn't you tell me about the barrier? Or start with that instead?" She found herself asking.
Although part of her knew she wouldn't have listened that well shortly after the incident even if Satoru started with it, she asked. Maybe she just wanted to know why Satoru didn't.
Satoru let out a dry laugh, "I don't know."
"I see," Sachiko nodded.
She didn't know how to continue the conversation and she wished Satoru would steer the conversation back or teased her like before. Then, maybe it would feel less awkward and heavy.
"So, have you changed your mind?" Satoru asked.
"About?"
"You said goodbye like you didn't want to see me again." He said, his voice a little dry.
"I guess I did." Sachiko replied, what was she supposed to say here? She didn't want to end it all with Satoru but at the same time, she didn't know how to go from here.
"So?"
"I don't know, Satoru. I hate how things went down and how they'll never be the same again. We were having fun. So why..." She asked.
"You know, it didn't have to be different." Satoru replied, "If you don't totally hate me now, we can...maybe we can still hang out..and see if we can still be close.."
"Hate is a strong word, Satoru." Sachiko said.
"I guess it is." Satoru agreed. "So, does that mean?"
"I guess I can try.." Sachiko said with a nod after a while.
"Then, I have a suggestion." Satoru said, there was a small mischievous smile on his face now that Sachiko had agreed for another chance.
"I think we should start by remembering the most memorable thing we had together..." He said.
"The thing being?"
Satoru laughed, "Come on, where're we now?"
"On a bed," Sachiko stated.
"And?"
Sachiko laughed a little to cover up her cheeks getting red, "Satoru, are you suggesting we..."
"Only if you agree, of course. I'm the epitome of a gentleman." He replied.
"You mean womanizer?" Sachiko raised her eyebrows.
"Hey, that's not true!" Satoru shrieked.
"Yeah, keep lying." Sachiko scoffed.
Satoru laughed at her reaction and cupped her cheeks, "You look so cute when you banter with me.."
"What kind of kink is that?" Sachiko said in reply but that made him more amused.
"You'll know later on." He said with a playful smirk.
Maybe this was how being with Satoru was supposed to be.
Light-hearted and fun.
Soon, Sachiko found herself lost in an another intimate adventure with Satoru, her initial anger and guarded feelings forgotten as they became one again.
------------