Maki, Nobara and Kei found themselves heading the clinic as both Panda and Toge made haste before them, tending to an injured Megumi.
Nobara groans from the injury she got from Mai's gun, rubbing her cheek and Kei looks at her with a frown.
"Damn, Maki-senpai.." Nobara grunts, "Why does your twin gotta be such a bitch?"
"She really didn't have to go that far," Kei commented on the situation, "Especially that Todo, that crazy ape-"
Maki shrugs with the cursed tool rested over her shoulder,
"Who knows. Ever since I left the Zenin family, she's been nothing like that towards me too."
"Senpai, she said you can't control curse energy when we both fought..is it true?"
"That's right. I can't imbue tools like you and Kei can. I even need glasses to see these type of spirits," She said, taking off her glasses to show em off to the first year.
"T-Then why become a sorcerer?"
Maki laughs before stopping at her tracks, completely looking at the two behind her,
"To spite my family." Nobara grins at her answer, "They regarded me as a failure for the lack of curse energy I have, but wait till you see when their faces when I become strong enough to even surpass them!"
Kei smirks at her confident tone,
"That's Maki. She's one of the best."
"Senpai, I really admire you!" Nobara cries out, leaning against her.
"Is that so?" Maki questions, "That means a lot. If only my sister felt that way about me."
"Speaking of.." Nobara backs away a bit from Maki before looking at Kei,
"Hot wheels? Seriously, what does she mean by that?"
Kei rolls his eyes at that name,
"I'm just as confused as you, Nobs."
"I mean, what is she to you? For real?"
Still confused, but Kei tries to make assumptions,
"Uh, I don't know. Rivals? Enemies? You'd think I'd know but I don't. One day, she woke up and chose violence..on me."
Nobara blinks in confusion, "You mean she hurt you before?"
"Not exactly physical. But she'd exchange the occasional "You're so ugly" and the wheelchair insults, that type of thing."
"I hate this girl even more now!" Nobara shouts with a fist in the air, angry over the mistreatment towards Kei.
"No offense, Maki.."
Maki chimes in on the topic, "None taken. Heck, even I still don't know why out of all people, she dislikes Kei so much."
She then laughs, "But you know when some girls are mean to some guys, it could just mean they actually like them. Soo.."
Kei burst out laughing at that before she could even continue.
"Yeah fuckin right," He said in disbelief, "Cause someone who jokes about me not being able
to get with anyone is a total sign of someone liking me."
He then puts his hands out and shrugs in his chair,
"But I mean, she's not entirely wrong."
"Oh Kei, You're not bad looking at all! The fuck are you saying-" Nobara confesses, earning a blush from on his face by the sudden outburst.
"She complains so much to you but she doesn't even look at the mirror herself. You're amazing in your own way, Kei. Dont let anyone say otherwise."
Nobara utters as Maki looks at her, nodding and agreeing with her.
Kei smiles at her,
"Honestly I don't care what people think of me most of the time," Kei says before thanking his crush on the pep talk.
"But I'm really thankful I can have someone like you who thinks I'm a decent person-"
"I said amazing person," She interrupts, "And you're welcome, Kei. Glad I can be that someone.."
Maki's stare lingers at them before stifling a chuckle.
'They're really cute," She thought to herself.
"Come on guys, let's go to Shoko's fast!" She says, walking a little further.
"Okay!" Nobara says, both first years following after.
Kei's smile soon falters and then he looks down to himself and then at Nobara's back turned against him.
'Thanks for that Nobs, but deep down, I'm all not that appealing.'
He can already hear Gojo's words already attacking him in his mind, hearing the teacher rant about Kei secretly putting himself down.
'With the way I am , I'm sure no one would want to be with me,' He thought to himself with a sad smile.
'But that's not something I'm too focused on. I really just need to get strong and reliable in time of the Kyoto event..'
Speaking of that, he needed to speak to Principal Yaga after Nobara's marks were healed.
He stood in front of him, underneath the temple with his dolls surrounding him.
"Murasaki, what can I do for you today?"
"I have a request I need to make.." Kei started, "I was going to ask Ieri-Chan but I figured I'd have to ask you or the elders first before."
Yaga looks at him with interest,
"What is it?"
"I want to be able to use core capsules when I fight in the Kyoto event." This causes a shocked reaction from the principal, who now stares at him with intensity.
"Do you know what you're asking? If I tell this to the elders, they think it'll be cheating!"
Kei shakes his head, "Not exactly. After my fight with Sukuna, they can't help but sympathize for what I went through. Think of it as making it up. For sending first years in the first place."
Yaga grimaced at the response,
"Even if that's the case, you know those capsules are used after an injured sorcerer needs it to continue the fight. A boost of cursed energy to the needed part of their body.. but after the time runs out, you start to get so many symptoms."
"Like what?"
"Like not feeling like you can't walk for the next day, high fever or just a sign of sickness in general. The pills are a bit strong so that's why we don't give it to just anyone, unless it's that important."
Kei only shrugs at the symptoms,
"That doesn't sound anything new to me, principal." Kei mutters, crossing his arms against his chest. "I've even had to face that regardless because of this curse on my damn legs."
Yaga puts his hand out, "No need to use that language, Murasaki." He then continues, "Why do you want to use it now?"
Kei looks down to his feet,
"Truth is, principal. After meeting my opponents, I realize I'll need to step up my game a bit. I know people say I'm still capable in this condition but I think it's best if I'm on my feet for this event."
"Didn't you say you can walk every once in awhile?"
"Yes, but sadly for not too long. In a way, I'm like a car that runs out of gas way to quickly when I walk just once before I have to be put in the chair again for days." He sadly says,
"But the capsules could amplify more cursed energy on my legs, since I produce less there compared to everywhere else. Meaning-"
"The time duration for you to walk will be longer." Yaga finishes, now pondering on the request,
"I guess it wouldn't really be cheating since now you'd just be like any walking sorcerer who will be apart of this."
"I say it'll give you a few hours before the effect of capsule goes away. But are you really ready for this?"
Kei nods,
"Yes, I'm fine with what it comes with. I just can't let anyone down."
"Kei, you've been an exceptional sorcerer without it." Yaga confesses, "You've completed every assignment we gave you."
Kei nods his head, clenching on his fists,
"That's true but this time, it's a lot different." He recounts seeing Megumi being thrown outside by Todo with incredible force.
Unsure what the heir of Kamo or the robotic Mechamaru could do.
The point is, this fight was different. It was a fight against other sorcerers, not spirits.
It was going to be tedious but that's why he asked,
Because him and Maki already got a plan up their sleeve.
-
Two days before the showdown, all first years- and second years barged into Kei's room in their own pajamas.
"Did we really have to host the meeting here?" Kei mumbled, embrassed that Maki and Nobara found themselves looking around the room.
"Ahh, it's the switch you were telling me about!" Nobara was jumping in delight.
"We can play that later, but we got some important things to talk about." Maki said.
They all held a circle late at night, with Kei and Nobara sitting together on his bed, along with Maki and Toge. Both Panda and Megumi sat on the sidelines.
"Alright guys, I think I have a plan for the event to come," Maki announces, "We're going to give them the element of surprise."
"Element of surprise?" Megumi asked, crossing his legs on the floor.
"With Todo's strength, we can't really go head on. Otherwise the fight will end fast," She continues with a finger on her chin, "So I think it's best if we all split up, some in teams and some by themselves."
She then elbows Kei at the shoulder, making a cue at him. He then speaks up,
"Right, so I've talked about the capsule thing with the principal and after that, I ended up getting a fast approval hours later."
"That's good and all," Megumi intervenes, "But you know what those things can do to you after, right?"
Kei gulps to himself,
"I do know, Megs," He then glares at everyone with a warm expression, "But I promise you guys it's going to be worth it. All of us could be walking away with promotions at the end."
"You're doing a selfless act. I commend you," Panda says with a salute.
"Salmon, salmon."
"I'm losing track of thought but basically even though I'm going to to use those capsules, I'm going to show up in my wheelchair."
"Wait, why?" Nobara asked, still confused over it.
Kei grins at her,
"That's the trick Maki and I created." He continues with an amusing tone, "We're going to pretend wittle old me is by myself and when those guys try to ambush me all it once, I'll use my strings to separate everyone."
He continues, "Then all of you will come out of the shadows and find yourself fighting whoever you are stuck with. I'll join Toge behind the scenes afterwards!"
Nobara smiles with such enthusiasm,
"Oh so the whole wheelchair thing is just a ploy! I get it now. That's a genius move, Kei."
"Heh, can't wait to see all their faces when they realize they've fallen into a trap," Maki smirks.
~
After their little debrief, the group played games on Kei's television screen.
When Nobara said she was going to beat everyone, she really was going to beat everyone as she spammed Metaknight's spin on everyone's characters.
"Tch, this isn't fair at all!" Megumi shouts, trying to land a fist with his Falcon but Megaknight soars in the air.
"You're just mad that I've beaten you twice, Megumi," Nobara laughs out and then looks at Kei, who for the first time had to sit out of a match.
He looked at the screen, eyes of defeat as she realized someone in a long time has beaten him.
"See this, Kei? I told you I wasn't going to be defeated so easily."
"Really? Haha or maybe it's just Toge using his cursed speech at you." He teases and Nobara starts slamming the controls with all her strength.
"Shut up, all of this is me!"
"Tell em, Nobara," Maki rooted for her in the background while Panda was rooting for Megumi.
But Nobara ended up finishing off Megumi.
"Looks like you lost, Megumi," she said with a cocky smile. "You really gotta stop getting your ass kick."
"Oh shit. Roasted." Kei laughed and Nobara did the same while Megumi looked completely pissed.
The two were so drunk on energy that they ended up being the only two, still playing games while the rest had went to their respected rooms.
Kei didn't want to end this without winning at least one match.
But Nobara was good.
She ended up using Daisy instead and she too kept spamming the character with her shimmy attack, slamming Daisy's butt against Kei's robin.
The two were both tied, with both of them having one more life.
Kei panicked but all hope came to his mind when he found a trophy assist falling in the corner of the arena. He instantly rushes to pick it up and throws it up in the air,
Pixelated sheriff arrives to the scene and Kei starts to chuckle when he realizes how this was going to end.
He shot his pistol at her, sending the character into the air. Her defeat came at the end.
Kei starts cheering for himself as Nobara starts to cry out in defeat. They were so loud that it was certain Megumi could hear two doors down.
"I'm still the greatest smash player ever!" Kei shouts, patting himself on the back with praises.
While Nobara tries to tug him down by the end of his shirt, shaking her head.
"No way! I almost had you! I almost did!" She cried out but Kei kept taunting her some more.
An irksome visage comes on her face and before she knows it, she accidentally pulls Kei down the bed while her being on top of him.
"Woah!" Kei's back lays flat on the mattress and looks up at Nobara as she still complains about her defeat.
"One more match. I totally let my guard down! just one m-"
"Uh, Nobs?" She then realized the position that the two were in. A bashful look comes across her face before grabbing Kei by the hand, pulling him up.
She tugs a hair behind her ear.
"Ha, sorry." She says, "I got carried away."
Kei smiles, rubbing the back of his head.
"Haha it's okay, really. I knew you were getting so hyped up over it."
"Can we just play one more though." Nobara asked again but Kei had to put his foot down.
"Honestly, Nobs. I'm kinda tired. I think it's time I go to bed."
Nobara pouts, "Ah, you're no fun." Even after they had 10 matches together.
"Hmm, what about watching a movie?" She says, quickly turning on the PlayStation to see what movies he had on there.
"Nobs, I-" She looks at him with pleaded eyes, something he's never seen in her.
His mouth left slightly agape before he regains himself and says,
"Okay, we can watch a movie together."
She chooses titanic, something odd to him since he could've sworn she hated romantic movies.
"I only like the part where people start dying," She said bluntly as the two laid against his bed, Kei looking at her a chuckle.
"I thought I was the only one. But I will admit, Leo and Kate's performance together is ✨immaculate✨"
She scoffs at him,
"I didn't think you were the hopeless romantic."
'Of course, especially when I'm around someone like you' He thought to himself.
"Yeah.." He simply answers as the two watch in silence.
Nobara sneaks a look at him and back to the television. She smiles to herself, blushing a bit.
It's been long since the two hang only to themselves. The last time was at Akihabara and she longed for it since.
'Maybe after the Kyoto event, we can do it again.' She thought, her heart beating a little at the sound of that.
She internally slaps herself,
'What was I feeling just now?'
"Kei.." She breaks her silence and the blonde looks at her with a yawn. Trying to stay up throughout the movie.
"Y-Yes?"
"I really missed your company a lot, Kei. I was scared that our time in Akihabara was the last time we'd bond like that."
"Oh yeah, I agree. I'm actually glad I'm not dead.." He says but he tries to push away that dark topic.
"Trust me, Nobs. When this Kyoto thing is over, we should just go and celebrate out in the city again. You and Megumi."
She frowns at the third companion,
"I've been to places with Megumi and let me tell you, he doesn't like being dragged to those places most of the time.." She mutters, remembering the awkward exchanges they'd mostly have shopping while Kei was in the hospital.
"When you meant we, I was hoping it could just be you and I.." Nobara utters out.
Kei smiles at the girl, trying to cover his best face.
"Well you did say it's our own thing, so let's keep it that way."
"Yeah!" She says with a cheeky grin, completely distracted while watching the movie.
Her feelings were jumping around, unsure why but there's something she can only think of with the symptoms she felt deep beneath her.
She always found Kei interesting but she was starting to see so much more.
She looks and see Kei, eyes widened when she sees the boy knocked out right next to her. She didn't even hear it.
He ended up curling himself up on the side, facing Nobara with his eyes closed. Already in complete slumber.
She looks at him and felt her face heating up all of a sudden.
"Huh.." she says, "You look really cute while you're sleeping, Kei."