❤︎ 1737 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜, 6.5 𝚖𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎
❤︎ 𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗, 𝚋𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐁𝐄 ⁎⁺˳✧༚ (ushijimasmeatrider) 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚖𝚎!
ヾ(｡✪ω✪｡)ｼ

═══════════════

"Fuck!" Geto yelled, the spirit now impossibly tightened around his torso. 

"GETO SENPAI!" He threw his blade at me. It was a wobbly throw but I caught the blade in time, just as Geto started submerging into the spirit's mass of tissues.

"There once, was a boy... I once had a boy... A boy I loved... I boy that said he loved me... Forever, he said... But then... Then! I became ill, so weak... I couldn't move... I was no longer pretty... The boy came to the hospital... He brought flowers... Fragrant roses! I thought he was there for me... To say he loved me... But... But... But...! He had no eyes for me... None... He was there to see the nurse!!!" The curse grew and squelched around Geto, who was now waist-deep in a sea of bloody flesh-ropes. "THAT BOY HAD BLACK HAIR... JUST LIKE YOU!"

"Give! Geto! Senpai! back!" A blink and I ran towards the disgusting thing. I almost slipped on its drool; its humanoid, greasy, petroleum grief. 

It was still mumbling about some boy when I jumped up and stabbed it in both its eyes.

"NO ONE LOVES ME!!!" The spirit screamed in pain as its grip on Geto loosened. "No one! Why... everyone is... was... repulsed. Repulsed by me..." 

"Y/n, back!" Geto called out a gigantic leech. I slid back and landed hard on my left ankle. It strained with a sharp pang.

I fell back into a pool of congealing blood and watched as the leech swallowed the head whole. Thus like a thawing berg, the entire building liquefied and tumbled down around us.

We both fell to the ground, onto stones and rubble drenched in the sweet, metallic stink of raw exposed meat. Several feet away from me, Geto lay supine, surrounded by organs, not of his own. 

"Senpai... You hurt?" I wobbled towards him. I felt my left leg trailing behind. I looked down and my ankle was the size of a baseball.

"I... might've broken a rib or two," he tried to sit up. 

"Don't move!" I placed a hand on him. "...This side?" 

He groaned. I lifted his uniform: his left rib cage was covered in burgundy blots. I knelt beside him to use my curse reversal on him.

My palms glowed lowly from my Jujutsu. And yet, my hands were cold; it was a glow without heat.

"That wasn't a second-grade at all, was it? There's no way." Geto whispered.

Killed by a special grade... My parents and my sister-to-never-be: were their insides spilled, too...? I'd like to think of their vertebrae sliced clean, with smooth cross sections, the way you'd chop perfectly grilled ribs at a family barbecue. I'd like to think that it was only a blink before they expired, that it was an unfeeling instant--only a flash and their synapses disconnected. Sort of like when you accidentally trip on your landline and the phone stops mid-ring.

"Good job, y/n... What a birthday gift you received, huh?" Geto said, sneaking his hand over mine. 

My last memory was of myself crumbling onto Geto, like a marionetted doll, its strings having been snapped. Geto's heart beat next to my bleeding temple as I felt him pressing his palm into the back of my head.

Forgot to ask him how he knew my birthday was coming...

Both Geto and I spent the next couple of weeks in TJH's hospital wing, resting and being taken care of. The wing was under renovation and only one room was open. Hence, there I was, propped up in my bed, quietly listening to the rustle of Geto in his bed. He was a mere six feet away from me, sleepless, and restless, but only two curtains away.

I quite liked being taken care of, even if it was in the unfortunate context of broken bones after having been tricked into facing off a pseudo-second-grade. I liked having the nurses and doctor checking in on me. I enjoyed their prodding, inspections, and assessments of me and thought of myself as an inanimate porcelain doll. I felt embarrassingly happy when my meals were brought to me, without fail, three times a day: oatmeal in the morning, whole-grain rice with miso and protein for lunch, and for dinner, salads and sandwiches with fruit cups as dessert. 

It made me feel like a child--a helpless but loved one.

Geto, on the other hand, was glum. Three days after our mission, he started insisting on returning to school and his training. He was extremely vocal about his detest towards this mandatory rest for making him soft and therefore constituted a"disrespect towards his well-being." No one could convince him to lie down and heal. Even in the dead of night, through a slit in my curtain, I'd watch him pacing back and forth in our room, his trail of black hair following behind him like a shadow.

It wasn't until Yaga showed up that Geto finally resigned to his current reduced state. 

"Suguru, if I see that you dare come back to classes before you're fully healed--and I mean FULLY--I will break your other ribs, not by myself, but with a cursed doll made just for you. One that will look like a clown, no less, because that's what you will be," Yaga berated through his usual sun-shaded eyes.

"And Y/n. I know you will have no trouble taking care of yourself. But... since you were there with Suguru, you too are in charge of keeping an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't run away or do anything dumb. If he tries anything, I'll have a doll waiting for you as well. Before either and both of you have the strength to put on your own socks again, here's a fun game to keep your minds sharp. Enjoy, kiddos," Yaga tossed a box of Scrabble onto the drawer between us.

He didn't leave without handing me a doll shaped like a pink tanuki. It was not infused with any sort of his prized cursed energy and its face was lopsided. Yet, it was the most enchanted gift I'd ever received in my life.

"Come on, Senpai! Let's play," I hoisted my legs to the ground while groping for my crutches. 

"Don't move! I'll come to you," Geto hastily picked up the box of Scrabble and pushed a chair to my bedside. "Why do we gotta play board games like some old married couple..." He kept on muttering but started dumping out the squared chips of letters onto my bed.

We took turns filling up the hollowed grid with our chips. Swoon, I spelt. Pinprick, he responded. Kindred, I replied. Inundate, he frowned. Submerge, I echoed. Beguin, he finished.

"Beguin... That's not even a word. Did you mean begin or penguin?"

"No. Look it up," he insisted. "Béguin means... 'infatuation.' Or... 'crush.' Well, the e's supposed to be marked with an acute accent. The word comes from the French word béguin, meaning 'bonnet'."

"Then you were wrong. Your e was just a plain one, with no accents. I won," this time, it was I who didn't look into his eyes. 

Still, in the corner of my left eye, I caught him smiling at me.

After two weeks of blissful non-responsibility, it was time for our final checkup before discharge. "Checking our curse levels again, doctor? We've been checked every other day since we were admitted..." Geto asked as he sat down. 

"Senpai... It's just standard procedure, I'm sure..." I said.

"Mr. Yaga instructed me to take extra precaution with monitoring you two," the school doctor answered. Once again, she hooked us each to a cordy machine through jelly sensor pads placed on our wrists, hearts, temples, and carotid arteries. "You were both exposed to a first-grade curse while being severely underprepared–mentally and physically. It is my job to make sure no residues of the curse reside within you. So pardon the tedium."

"What happens if residual curses stay within us, doctor?" I asked. 

"Depending on your body size and Jujutsu technique, your body can hold more or less foreign cursed energies. Our young Geto here specializes in absorbing curses and therefore, innately, he has an incredibly high tolerance for them. His body is also quite tall and sturdy. You, y/n, on the other hand, trains in curse reversal. Soon, you will be able to neutralize invading curses within your own body. But for now, since you're smaller in built, naturally your threshold for them is lower," the doctor answered, eyes fixed on the monitor.

From the monitor, I saw our pulses bouncing--juvenile, elastic, and fresh. 

"All normal," the doctor said and started to peel off the pads. I looked at the gooey substance stuck on my wrists. "And what happens when you're exposed to too much cursed energy...?" I asked.

...You fall into a coma and eventually, you die. That was the doctor's answer.

Geto and I gathered our things and walked out of the room in tandem. I'd started to stand closer to him when we walked together. He did not back away anymore.

We pushed open the door...

...and were surrounded by confetti and loud pops.

"Welcome back!!!" Gojo pushed two armfuls of hugs onto us, catching us by surprise. 

Yū tied coned hats onto both of our chins and secured them on top of our heads. I peeked past Gojo's upper arm: Nanami was holding a rainbow and glittery banner that read "WELCOME BACK & HAPPY BIRTHDAY Y/N ♡"--tolerant bemusement was the only way I could describe his expression.

"Kento made that banner himself! Isn't he so talented?!" Shoko shrieked. "Let go Satoru, let me hug them, too! Awww, my poor little warriors..."

"Kento, did Shoko make you do that...?" Geto asked. 

"Yes, and no," Nanami replied.

"How'd you all know it was my birthday today...?" I asked. 

"Suguru told us!!" Shoko said as she raised me like one does a pet cat or a sack of flour.

"Senpai...?" I turned to look at him, ignoring the force with which Shoko was shaking me and the alarming possibility of me breaking my other ankle.

"Shoko... you said you have a birthday gift for her...?" Geto cleared his throat.

"Oh, yeah! Totes forgot!" Shoko dropped me abruptly and I almost landed on my bad ankle. "Tahhhh-daaaaaaah!"

From her pocket, she hoisted out six beige plastic cards with rounded corners.

"Fake IDs! Good as real! From Ms. Tsukumo! We're going cluuuuuubbbbbing, looooosers!"

God, how I wish we didn't.

═══════════════

Author's note!

okay, clubbing... yay or nay?

a personal giant-ass nay for me. i hate clubbing.

take care & b safe
ikari
2024, aug 8