Night in the hospital

The cool hospital room, dimly lit by a single flickering lamp, seemed alien and ominous. Six in the morning. The street was shrouded in gray twilight, the city seemed frozen in anticipation of something. I, a diligent student at one of the most famous universities in the world, always woke up before sunrise. Sleep for me was a luxury that I could rarely afford - the dampness and cold in the orphanage where I grew up, the voices of children, and later the endless studies and exhausting work took away my peace. 

But that night I slept well for the first time in a long time. However, instead of relief and calm, the air in the room was permeated with something disturbing, elusive, scratching at the subconscious. Everything around seemed wrong. There was absolute silence outside - no sounds of cars or people, which was disturbing because Tokyo is a busy city, no matter the weather or the hour, it was always busy. Only someone's footsteps, slow and strange, came from afar. They sounded like someone was dragging their feet on the floor.

My heart sank when I heard them. I tried to convince myself that it was just a nurse, but with every step the sound became more intermittent, uneven. The light above my bed flickered, causing the walls to disappear into darkness for a moment. When the light returned, it seemed to me that something moved in the corner, as if a shadow had come to life. I turned my gaze to the door. It was slightly open, but behind it there was thick darkness, and it seemed to me that in this impenetrable darkness something looked at me. The footsteps behind the door stopped, replaced by a dull, damp sound, as if someone was breathing, standing very close. Frozen in place, I tried to hear something else, but my heart pounded loudly in my ears, drowning out everything else.

I held my breath, feeling the air around me grow thick. From the window I noticed how a strange barrier, woven from dense, living darkness, was enveloping the hospital. Whispers began to come from everywhere - shrill, distorted, like the voices of hundreds of dying people. They formed words:

"Don't look at me... Don't look at me..."

And then the door creaked, slowly opening. The same dragging sound came from the hallway, only closer, much closer. I took a deep breath and slowly, unhurriedly got out of bed and squinted carefully looked around. My gaze fell on the table lamp standing a few meters away from me, which I noticed as the only object that could be used as a weapon. I slowly and smoothly reached for the light bulb and squeezed it tightly in my childish hands, resolutely looking at the door. 

A monstrous creature slowly appeared from the door, stretching out its long, broken limbs. I was horrified by its appearance, my hands were shaking. The lamp, which I had previously held on to with all my might, as if it were the only thing in the world that could save me, fell to the floor with a loud thud. At that moment, this monster looked at me with its many mouths and eyes, which reflected horror. It started to slowly approach me, it was like a lump had come to my throat, I couldn't make a sound. I started to back away and hit a wall, my mind was in turmoil.

It was hard for me to come to terms with the idea that I was reborn, and thinking that I would die like this from such a monster made me feel angry, but I couldn't do anything, the monster seemed to enjoy and savor my fear and my experiences, stood up to his full height, at that moment the silence was broken by the sound of quick steps. Someone was rapidly approaching the ward. Hope flashed, but was immediately replaced by doubt: was this a person?

The monster, sensing someone else's presence, let out a piercing roar, its many mouths began to merge into one huge one, ready to swallow me. He jumped forward, and all I managed to do was close my eyes.

A loud bang, the sound of breaking glass. Opening my eyes, I saw the monster fly towards the window and fall further, breaking through the window and parts of the wall on which the window was, twisting in pain with cut limbs. I looked at the man who arrived with hope: at least he saved me and looked like a man, so I had no reason to doubt and be suspicious of him. The man who arrived was a fair-haired young guy of about twenty years old, tall and athletically built. In addition to his strange hairstyle, his peculiar weapon immediately caught my eye: a blunt short blade wrapped in fabric with a pattern of black dots. 

The guy looked like an ordinary person, but there was something inexplicable about him - a force that made the monster fly away like a ball. He stepped forward and jumped from the window after the monster, I staggered on weakened legs, forgetting about fear, ran to watch the continuation of the show from the place where the window had recently stood. It took him only a few seconds to be next to the monster, starting a series of furious attacks with his blunt weapon that cut the monster as if it were cutting butter and not the monster. The monster tried to fight back, writhing in agony, but the young guy did not give him a break and under the onslaught of continuous attacks, only slowly disappearing ash remained from the monster.

And then suddenly a mocking voice came from behind me: " Oh, he's getting better!. "There were sounds of patting, and the same mocking voice continued: -"Well done, Nanami, I'm sure if it weren't for your bangs that were in your way, you would have done much better! " he said loudly with a chuckle, as if mockingly. 

I stared in amazement at the young giant, I had to crane my neck as far as possible to see his face, and then an epiphany came to me. In front of me stood a tall young man with white hair sticking out in all directions and round dark glasses on his eyes. It was Gojo fucking Satoru! Damn it, I couldn't believe my eyes. So many amazing and impossible things had happened to me in two days that it would have been enough for the rest of my life. Today I had received too many impressions and experienced too much, and I no longer had the strength to somehow show my surprise or admiration, fear and the like. I just stared at him.

He glanced at me and looked at his comrade with displeasure, saying: " Nanami, I told you it would be better if I quickly dealt with the curse myself."

The young man whose name was Nanami, without changing his face, said in a monotonous voice: " It was only a second-level curse, it is not worth you destroying an entire hospital. And why did you come? I can easily deal with cursed spirits of this level, "Nanami finished his speech in a cold tone.

The white-haired guy said in a feigned angry tone: "Ha, I see, I didn't think that you thought so little of me, Na-na-min, " he finished his speech with a chuckle.

I stood there in bewilderment and looked from Gojo to Nanami.

 Gojo thought for a few seconds and suddenly appeared in front of me, and before I could do anything, he touched my forehead, and my mind was swallowed up by the kingdom of Morpheus.

....

Gojo carefully caught the unconscious boy's body, slowly carried him to the bed and put him to sleep. 

Nanami, who had been silently watching this, snorted and said: "I thought you would argue with me for hours." 

Gojo, not paying attention to this attack, only looked at Nanami carefully for a few seconds and asked with a calm smile: "Did you notice this?" 

Nanami looked at the white-haired man in bewilderment and said: "What?" 

Gojo awkwardly rubbed his chin and, looking at the rising sun, said thoughtfully: "I think the curse noticed this too, which is why it hesitated for a long time to attack the boy." He turned to Nanami and said: "This boy's reserves of cursed energy are colossal, he would have made a good sorceress." 

Nanami exclaimed with displeasure: "And you just watched as the curse tried to kill him?"

Gojo spread his arms out to the sides, nodded with a beaming smile on his face and began to justify himself: "Well, I could have saved him very quickly if the situation had started to get out of control. And I wanted to see how the kid would behave. "

Nanami only shook his head and said: "He has already witnessed a completely different world, we need to tell him about the shaman society, and when he grows up, let him decide for himself whether he wants to become part of the new world or not. " Nanami smiled for the first time in all this time and said: " I'll leave the guy to you, you get along well with children. "

Gojo exclaimed with irritation on his face: "Ha, as always, you dump all the difficult work on me. "

At the exit from the hospital, the assistant of the magicians humbly stood patiently waiting for the two magicians who were walking slowly. 

Gojo in the car looked at the hospital for the last time and muttered under his breath:" The next generation sorceress will be interesting."