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Chapter 1: The wanna be savior
“I’m afraid to say that my life have been nothing but sad and boring. It’s truly quite pathetic, if I had to be completely honest with you.”
“Truly, I could have been so much more if I enjoyed life itself. I was simply to caught up in my own thoughts, I always needed something inhumane to love.”
The softening voices of high schoolers slipped into Rita’s ears, leaving her to frown at the noises. She whined quietly to herself, and turned her head away from them, hoping to have the sounds die by. Her fingertips scratched the back of her neck in annoyance at the continuous bickering. Though, half conscious, she still could make out her emotions of the surroundings. It was aggravation. This was what sleep deprivation did to a human being. It was important to take care of oneself. Soon occupied by the singing of the birds, Rita harshly woke up from her nap, and looked around to see just what had caused her to wake from her very needed sleep.
This was what she could see: she was still in her classroom. A few students standing by the classroom door, just chatting like the immature kids they were. On the board in front of the class, there was few small doodles drawn by white chalk. A weird shaped cat with one eye on it’s belly, it seemed. Or were the proportion wrong? The eye should be up at the face, not the belly…
Rita couldn't help but feel an odd feeling after witnessing such nonsense.
Most of the tables were left unoccupied. Each students bag were hung beside the metal bars of the table, and when her eyes reached the clock, it read 12: 03. It seemed she had fallen asleep right after lunch. Rita turned to the window, right next to her own desk, she eyed angrily at the singing birds. It was two common mynas. Right there on the thin branch of the big tree that grew right in front of the school entrance. The annoyance only grew in her head that even the common myna birds had a mate for life. It looked like it was mocking her being an absolute loner. If only she could shoo them away.
“Tch, the irony.” Rita mumbled to herself as she laid back onto her chair and closed her eyes once again. Kids these days were so exhausted.
Honestly, Rita wasn’t keen to studying, or making to an exceptional prestigious university. This was very easy to point out, if you could only look at her report card, she would be receiving normal average grades. Not excellent nor bad. Only to be normal.
In other words, Rita didn’t try hard. She was exceptionally lazy, but intelligent. Her teachers got a strong headache whenever they see her just giving her bare minimum. Rita would only be met with those words, “You could be so much more, Rita.” Or, even, “You are wasting so much of you’re talent!”
Those words slipped right into her left ear and flew out the other ear. Rita could care less. After all, what was the point in life? She didn’t have the desire to be humane anymore. Feeling so unmotivated, it was just a matter of time when she gives up all her worth. It was just horrible. To be stuck in this body, mind and the world.
While Rita was just mindlessly wasting her time, some first year walked into the class to hand out some test papers. Probably running errands for the teacher. Her eyes made towards the student without much thought. After three seconds from now on, Rita’s fate will be all changed in an instant. Isn’t it just romantic to have one become determined for something so impossible because of simply ones existence? I find it rather melodramatic.
It had seemed Rita found it utterly confusing.
She could only stare with her lips agape, just trying to realize what in the world was going on. Her throat tightened.
‘I must be hallucinating,’ Rita thought to herself. There was a hint of humor mixed with the confusion. ‘Oh, i’ve definitely lost it.’
That short pink hair, determined brown eyes, and that damn yellow hoodie. Either she was going mad in her brain, or there had been a costume party or something. Rita almost lost her balance on the chair, with a thump the chair landed safely onto its original position.
Perhaps she was really going insane or lonely, because someone explain to her why she was seeing a main character from a shonen jump manga. At that stage of horror and excitement, there was a clear physical expression etched on her face. Her black eyes only stuck on the individual who had similar traits as Itadori Yuji, a character from a shonen manga called ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’. Which also just happens to be her two year long hyper-fixation.
The pink haired boy looked around the classroom, ignorant enough to not notice Rita’s absolute confused face added with horror. How classic of him. He jogged into the almost empty classroom and tossed the stock of paper onto the teachers desk by the corner. Then he walked out swiftly, his yellow hood bouncing with him as he ran out the classroom with a quite content grin.
He even acted like Itadori Yuji!
With a loud bang on the floor, she slipped and fell out of her chair trying to run after the figure. The wooden floor she landed on wasn’t very welcoming and presented her a scratch on her bare knee. Rita couldn’t even feel anything, however. She was only looking at him. That boy. That damned boy. He was making her look foolish, but her attention wasn’t on that topic.
‘There’s no way.’
Ignoring the confused stares of the few students, she quickly got to her feet, pushing herself through the classroom and running into the halls. Her black hair got into her face, annoyed, she pushed those strands away in a hurry and ran in the hallway. Hoping to find him again. Hoping to-
‘But just the thought of it…’
Rita’s footsteps echoed past the crowd of students hanging out in the hallway. She looked through the humans, and searched for something so distant and unreal. In the crowd of people, she could easily pick out the pink haired individual. It was on sight once she saw it, like a kid running after a glowing firefly, Rita would speed her steps up just see if it was real. If anything of hers were reality.
‘…it makes me pleasantly happy!’
The other souls all died out, leaving only the pink haired student’s and her’s visible. All faded to a dark black, only the boys shining bright like a firefly. Flying around like a free spirited insect. Glowing and shining its way through.
Something inside Rita changed. She couldn't exactly pinpoint on what it was, but something had changed. It was so warm. Something had been altered, and it made Rita feel so secure of herself. There was a burning desire in her stomach that she just needed to reach that boy. Reach and just check-
“Itadori Yuji?” A soft rasp of voice blurted out of her throat. Her finger held his hood tightly, she could have almost lost him in the crowd. The texture of the hood felt like a clean cotton. Somehow, Rita felt heavy and nervous all of sudden. She could feel her palm sweating a little. The boy slowly turned to her way. She gulped the thick saliva in her mouth.
Rita’s heart skipped two beats after hearing his voice. She felt weak and vulnerable while at the state of pleasantness.
“Eh, who are you? Do I know you?” His friendly voice never failed to make her feel safe. How ironic.
“Y-you’re Yuji, right? One of the first years?” Rita asked, the nervousness seeping its way through her throat. She needed to act calm. If the confirmation was correct, then perhaps she might have…changed. Or this horrible world might have changed instead.
“You’ve got the right person! Is there anything you need?” Itadori flashed a kind yet silly smile.
No words could quite grasp what Rita had felt. Standing in front of a character born from the world of fiction. She felt perplexed, but yellow lilies bloomed in her lungs and, god, it was warm. Her fingers slowly returned to her sides, her eyes observing the human standing right there and then.
Perhaps, her fate will change along with the tides of the stories. Maybe she can do what she can to fight for people who deserves saving.
So, on that day, in the middle of the summer blues, Rita realized she had the chance to do something she desired for a very long time.
"And, that's how Rita Yoon ended up in the glorious Occult club!" Itadori announced loudly, putting her in the spotlight for the two people to see. The second years greeted her kindly. How wonderful. It's been a few days since the sudden realization of realities, and now it seemed Rita finally understood what was going on.
She was dreaming. A very pleasant dream, and certainly, she wasn't looking forward in waking up to her boring world. There lay a certain doubt in her stomach that things won't turn out smoothly the way she planned to. But, Rita guessed it wouldn't have mattered.
As long as she was here, no one would face a lonely and sad ending. That was her one and only goal.