Sorrow Shadows || TEIS Fanfiction.

Claire Kagenou, My Dearest Older Sister

'𝘐𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦?'

"Enough chitchat..." Grease pauses, his gaze intense.

"Claire Kagenou, has your physical condition... felt off recently? As in, has it gotten harder to use and handle magic? Have you experienced any pain when you use it? Is your body starting to turn dark with rot? ... Do you have any of these symptoms?" Grease asks, his tone serious.

"Did you abduct me to play doctor?" Claire responds with a sly smile.

"You know, I used to have a daughter. I don't want to knock you around more than I already have. Answering honestly would benefit us both," Grease states, his tone firm.

"Is that a threat? When I feel threatened, I tend to get hostile... even when I shouldn't," Claire warns.

"Are you saying you won't tell me the truth?" Grease challenges.

"We'll see," Claire retorts.

Grease and Claire lock eyes, glaring at each other in silence. Finally, Claire breaks the silence.

"Fine. I'll answer your dumb question since it's no big deal. What was it? About my condition and magic, right? Well, everything's fine now. If I wasn't chained up, I'd be doing pretty darn good," Claire responds confidently.

"What do you mean by 'now'?" Grease probes further.

"Well, I first noticed the symptoms a year ago," Claire answers.

"What? Are you saying it got cured... on its own?" Grease is surprised, as he has never heard of a case where such symptoms healed spontaneously.

"Yeah, I didn't do anything to... Oh, right. What was it? A 'stretch'? I don't know what that means, but my little bro asked me to stretch with him, and I felt better after that," Claire shares, recalling the incident.

'𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳? 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.'

"Stretch? I've never heard of that before... but if you had symptoms, that means I wasn't mistaken in thinking you're compatible," Grease remarks, his curiosity piqued.

"Compatible...? What does that mean?" Claire questions, confused.

"Nothing that should concern you. Either way, you're going to break soon enough. Oh, and I'll make sure to look into your brother..." Grease's sentence is cut short as Claire lands a blow to his nose.

"Wha—?!" Grease exclaims, stumbling back. He holds his bloody nose, shocked that Claire managed to free her arm from the chains and attack him.

“You scraped off your own flesh and dislocated your finger…?!”

These are no ordinary chains. They’re sealed with magic. In other words, she unleashed the full extent of her physical strength to slice the flesh of her hand, break her bones, and slide out of the chains to punch Grease. This rattles him to his core.

“If you do anything to my... I- I'll make sure you fucking regret it! I'll make you watch as I slice off the limbs of all your loved ones slowly as they scream in agony then I'll feed you their heart— Ngh…?!”

Grease clobbers Claire in the gut with all his might. There’s no way she can defend herself from his spells, especially when she’s strapped down by chains like that.