After The Divorce || Nanami Kento || JJK

The Plan [1]

CHAPTER 22

You stared at the figure on the bed. Dark
brown hair and pale skin, sickly in hue and contrasting the purplish bags under her eyes. 

It was hard to see it normally when she was awake, but now she looked so fragile.  So weak.

But that wasn't what frightened you.  A gloom like you had never seen before covered her entire personage.  It was strange, she seemed more like a husk than a person, like something within her was missing.  She looked like an empty cacoon.

You had never seen her like that before.  It was like looking at a dead body.

Somehow you felt like it was your fault, but at the same part some sick twisted part of you felt like it was retribution for dragging you into this.

'Isn't it fun to see someone feeling a fraction of the pain you feel'' it whispered to you like a plague, frightening you for a moment before you pushed the thought away.

You shook the thought from your mind as you walked closer, the anxiety building as you walked closer and placed your hand over her stomach to check for breathing.  Your fingers are shocked by the chill being radiated by her body, she felt like a block of ice.   You feel your body weaken and your knees turn to jelly at the thought of her being dead before the silence is shattered by a weak cough from Shoko.

Her eyes snapped open before looking at you, her eyes dull as if there was a film before her eyes.

"Are you.. okay? What happened"

She blinks at you silently, seeming to process what you were saying.  Her forehead scrunched for a moment. 

"Pretend I didn't ask that. What happened?"

She doesn't respond, just staring at you with blank eyes.  Seconds pass and she continues to stare at you in blank confusion before she seems to come alive.  Like a shaky machine stuttering to life.

"Shoko?"

"Y/N, you-"

You cut her off, your breaths coming out in puffs of air as you feel yourself getting worked up. "what happened a while ago? You weren't breathing and then you woke up but you looked dead and you didn't seem to recognize who I was and I thought you were dying and then you started to-"

Shoko grabs at your arms, her face a picture of abject panic, sending cursed energy into your body through way or your arm. "Y/N calm down,"

At hearing her words a strange anger blazed through you as you wrestle your arms from her, before registering what you were doing, without the support the weak Shoko fell helplessly back onto the bed, with a light thud.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that I-l" I don't know what came over me.

"The curse is getting worse," Shoko panted out, before pushing herself up to a seated position once more "Haven't you noticed yourself getting more and more irritable? Taking more and more risks you wouldn't usually?"

I jumped out a window and argued with my best friend of several years in the space of an hour.

'Ex Best friend of several years.  You mustn't forget she can't be trusted, why is she asking you this?' you thought.

With that thought in mind, you unconsciously back away from your position of leaning against her bedside.

Shoko nods upon seeing your reaction, in a way that makes it seem like she was expecting that reaction, "As I thought, the drink you took, the 'love curse' it's what making you paranoid.  It makes it hard for you to trust us and makes your emotions basically like a live wire.  Currently still mostly stable, yet intense emotions loosen the seal.  Could you try your best to stay calm?."

There was something about the deadpanness of her delivery that grated on your nerves, but you pushed it down and followed her instructions, nothing would come out of being anxious anyways.

"What do you mean?"

"I think my condition is evidence enough?  Think back to the last incident of you getting mad?"  Shoko coughed once more, a red color appearing at the corner of her lips. "Give me a second I'm going to explain as best as I can once i.." she breaks out into a fit of coughing "Next time you want to blow a cursed seal please warn me."

She raises her arms to her chest and presses on it. A blast of cold air flowing into her own chest.  Her eyes once again gaining that glossy texture, but less so, you could still see a semblance of consciousness in her eyes.  You finally realized why she had looked like she had earlier, her attention was turned inwards into healing herself.

"What do you mean blow a cursed seal?"  You asked, but your attention is drawn turned to the window.

————

Gojo sat in his car and looked up towards Shoko's room, waiting patiently for a signal.  He drummed his fingers in the back of the seat as he waited.

He didn't like this plan, but it was the only shot they had.  Involving anyone else in this mess would only cause it to blow up to proportions they can't control. 

The plan was simple.   Shoko constantly releasing reversed cursed energy would definitely enter Y/N senses soon or later.  Much sooner, if she attempted to leave, which was what Shoko predicted. 

"She'll definitely leave the room.  The paranoia symptom won't allow her to stay in one place."