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PTSD isn't something a fifteen year old should ever experience. Or anyone, for that matter.
But then there's KEI MURASAKI— a boy who as of late, been waking up screaming from the reoccurring nightmares.
He still can't rattle away the image of Nobara's eye exploding right in front of him. His skin runs cold, thinking of how her blood spilled on his face.
Then there's another scene he can't stop thinking and it's of the torture he endured after he was captured by Kamo.
He can hear his own blood curling screams again as the evil sorcerer whips him with thorns forge by his own blood.
They'd cut his limbs and reforge them all over again. The cycle would repeat, all just for his foes to get a kick of seeing a teenage boy cry in agony before they stuff a curse womb down his throat.
He wakes up again, making noise and Nanako comes running in to see what's all the commotion about.
He pants heavily as he clutches his chest, trying to pace his breathing. Nanako disturbs his privacy and leans way too close for his liking, placing her hands on his shoulders.
Once she does, he looks at her with an ungrateful desire so strong that it scares her when she meets his eyes.
"What do you think you're doing here?" He asked as she leans back a bit.
"I-I'm sorry, I heard your screams and I just wanted to help you."
He did not even know the girl so well and suddenly she's acting too nice to him.
It irked him the wrong way when earlier, she compared him to Getou Suguru.
He gagged at the realization that she might potentially see him as her old master.
"M-Master Getou would have bad dreams too, so I'd comfort him with everything I got-" She says, running her fingers at her chest.
He stops her abruptly by grabbing her fingers and throwing them away. He comes closer, zooming in with a more menacing state.
"I'm not Getou. Get out of this room, right now or his body won't come home to you guys."
She gasped in horror before plopping out of his bed and leaving him to himself.
He sighs in relief before falling back down, staring at the ceiling.
It's sunrise and Kei decides to make an early departure in finding Yuji.
He cared much of what the pink hair was going through. In a way, the both were in the same bubble. The two blamed themselves for the lost of so many good people they worked with.
But Yuji had a life to make for himself, Kei felt he did not. He felt like a slave of his lineage, who all were the same: wicked and acted upon bad emotion.
He walks to Shibuya and already spots an enemy, but an unexpected one.
"Huh? Hey, kid, why are you here?" He asked in annoyance. Kei walks up to the plate and meets face to face with the NAOYA ZENIN.
The two blondes have a stare down before Naoya gives a cocky grin.
"Everyone's been looking for you at the school. What, did you run away like the crybaby you are? Like how you did at the Zenin household?
Kei simply narrows his eyes at him and the Zenin member gets more irritated by his silence.
Kei finally asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Me? Oh, I'm looking for that Yuji boy. Didn't you hear? The elders want his head and I'm one of the few hunting him down...
Also..that brat Megumi might've tagged along, seeing as they were close."
"What the hell do you want with Megumi?" He barked.
'He better not try to hurt him.'
"Your friend might become the head of the Zenin clan after all. But no, no, no it can't go to some idiot like him. It belongs to me!"
He rambled on about how he's better than everyone from that clan and it's finally the time the spotlight reaches him.
He then boast about something that peaks Kei's interest,
"And I already have a fiancé arranged should I receive the heir seat. In fact, you already know her. And she knows you so much, as she won't stop talking about you."
"...Mai?!"
"That's correct. If I may ask, how does someone like you get the attention of a girl like her? I'm curious why she's so drawn to you, really..."
"But she's mine now! They were going to arrange me to Maki, MAKI, out of all the people! It would've been the worst, seeing as she doesn't know her place as an obedient, weak woman."
Kei's eyes snap at his insult and he grows mad every second. He grits his teeth, leaning his head forward as if he's going to charge right this second.
"You know you shouldn't be boasting over how you get to finally marry your cousin, it's disgusting," He seethed, curse energy illuminating around his hands.
"And also, don't you dare insult Maki! I guarantee she can kick your ass to the curb.."
"Ha, she's the one with burn marks at the hospital, not me. That curse spirit really left his mark," He comments on Jogo's marks tainted on Maki's side of her face .
"But anyways, Kei. I think it's time I take you back to the school and report on your suspicion behavior as of late...you've been a bad boy, I can tell~"
Kei scoffs and lets out a smirk,
"No, I'm going to end this right here, right now. I think it's about time I repay you for the wonderful treatment you gave me at the Zenin household."
Naoya smiles before he charges at him. The two go at it. Fighting with their bare fists. Kei is able to dodge and push away the taller man away from him, but he wasn't nearly advanced at this hand to hand combat as him.
"Ha, you're new at this type of up and close battle, huh?" Naoya asked before throwing Kei off and slamming a fist hard on his chest,
"You got so comfortable being in that chair for so long that you fought from the distance instead. But you don't know how to fight like a real man!"
Kei coughs and gets up on his feet but the man was faster than him. He tries his best to distance himself and when Naoya's back is turned, he uses his curse energy on him from afar.
But nothing happens.
He looks close at his hands,
"W-Why isn't it working?!" He asked himself enough for Naoya to hear. The other blonde laughs,
"Proximity, my friend."
And it appears so. Kei realizes his powers could only work at a near radius but anything too far, won't reach the target.
He cursed to himself and it only makes Naoya more happy.
Kei had to get used to being a close combatant. He touches the floor and pieces start to float, then he moves his hands around to form them into sharp spikes.
He then runs to Naoya and with calculation, he would shoot rain of spikes at the right moment.
Naoya barely dodged them and some reach his shoulders and one at his ankle.
"Now." Kei says and aims his force energy at him. Naoya does something unpredictable and dodges it despite an injured ankle.
Naoya suddenly gets up close to him and before Kei can react,
He touches his chest and performs his projection sorcery on him.
Out of the 24 frames, he chooses the one with Kei off guard and immediately pummels the boy to the ground. Slamming him hard at the face and the chest.
"And you were talking so high and mighty earlier! Look at you!"
Kei was on the floor, panting.
He's too fast, way too fast for his liking.
It made Kei angry at himself. He definitely needed to learn to be fast like him.
Before Naoya can act once more, they hear a voice call for Kei.
"KEI!"
He looks at his left and his eyes widened.
Yuji and Choso
Choso and him exchange stares and Choso looks disgusted.
That man can only see the late Koji.
"Brother, are you sure about this?" Choso asked Yuji.
"He's my friend, Choso! I can't just let him fight whoever that guy is."
"Ah, Sukuna's vessel!" Naoya licks his lips, pleased to see his target has made it here.
"Yuji, you're working with him?" He asked looking at Choso with disbelief eyes.
"Y-Yeah he's been protecting me for awhile."
"Who is he to you?"
"He's my...brother, I guess."
Choso gasped at Yuji finally admitting it and gets a bit soft, resembling a lot like Todo.
'Not this again.' Kei grumbled to himself and thinks of probing them some more later.
All he needed now was to kill Naoya, but then another presence enters the town.
"I found you, Itadori Yuji ." Yuuta stands from afar and his energy makes everyone crumble. It was so strong and powerful that even Kei was a bit intimidated.
"Is he like Gojo-sensei?!" Yuji asked and Kei immediately calls for him,
"Yuji, watch out! He's here to kill you."
And before he can go up to him for aid, Naoya stops him.
Naoya grins deviously before pulling out his sneaky tanto and stabbing him right his side. He cries out and Yuji runs to him,
"STOP, NO!" But Yuuta intervenes and takes Yuji to fight him off.
Kei looks at him, his hand now reaching to him since they were so close.
"You think you might've run, but you left yourself open!" Kei cries out before shooting his curse energy, finally getting ahold of Naoya.
Naoya now understands his power as he feels his body could not move. He's then lifted to the ground, so high, and then slammed hard back down.
Kei let's him go and tends to himself, pulling out the tanto out of his side and he whimpers out as the blood comes out.
Naoya groans, getting up with his elbows. The attack was so bad that it almost broke his bones.
"Okay, kid. You've made me mad!"
Naoya staggers back instead when Choso shoots his blood arrow at him.
Kei looks at the curse womb who comes by his side.
"Why are you helping me?" Kei asked and Choso looks at him.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?"
Kei looks at him for a moment before nodding. The two knew they had to beat this guy if they wanted to help Yuji out with Yuuta .
"You distract him and then I'll perform my new technique on him," The curse womb says and Kei listens.
He brawls with Naoya once more. He remembers his mistakes and fixes them. He dodged and doesn't let Naoya touch him so he can conjure his technique again.
He plunges him with all his might using his curse energy against the wall, keeping him there.
"Choso!"
Choso utters 'Supernova' and after using convergence, he starts to create small orbs of his own blood and then shoots it like a buckshot.
It splatters hard on his body and Naoya screams when it pierce his internal organs.
Kei brings him close and then twists his arms using his energy before beating him down to the ground.
"This is a gift for Mai.." He's pinned him with his body. He says it with one hit to his face.
"To Maki, for having an asshole of a cousin."
Once more,
"And for Megumi, the one rightful heir to Zenin. Not you."
Naoya coughs up blood and Kei simply looks.
"Any last words before I kill you?"
Naoya starts to scream in a panic. It was no longer him toppling Kei, it was all vice versa.
"P-Please, wait, spare me! I won't try to kill your friend if you let me live!"
He narrows his eyes, forcing his entire body up along with Naoya. The man was choking on the curse energy wrapped around his neck like a noose.
"Just end this," Choso mutters with annoyance to Kei's taunting.
"I will, don't worry."
"You'd only just rat on the elders about me and him though." Kei says to Naoya and the man shakes his head.
"Not a word! I promise. You were never here."
"PLEASE!"
"No. I really think you should die, Naoya. Sorry, you're still just a threat to me."
He screams more in horror before Kei tries to twist neck. But then a hand touches him.
Yuuta is suddenly there with Yuji's body beside him.
Kei drops Naoya and looks at Yuji, lifeless.
"Y-You killed Yuji?!" He growled before charging at the special grade sorcerer but he's stopped and so is Choso.
Choso turns unconscious when he hits him hard and then looks at Kei,
"Before you use your powers on me, listen to me first."
"Why would I? You hurt Yuji and now I'm going to hurt YOU!"
"I'm a double agent, Kei."
'Huh?'
"D-double, what, whatever do you mean?!"
"Kei. I've been appointed to kill Yuji but I wasn't going to do it. Before your Kyoto event, Gojo came to see me and told me to protect all of you.."
He looks at Yuji,
"I did kill Yuji for a split second but my reverse healing is already doing it's job. I had to do it to complete the binding vow I made. He'll be back up and alive in a few."
Kei felt he's at a whiplash. All this information being processed into his head,
"S-So you're not on the elders side?"
"Never was." Yuuta said.
"Then how come you didn't tell me that before I left the damn school?!"
"Because I had to keep it all a secret. Even I told Megumi last minute as well. No one else can know that I secretly intend on keeping Yuji alive. But since you went AWOL, I felt like it's best to tell you now before you do something stupid."
"Well, he knows now!" He points at a bleeding Naoya. He was so close to dying.
"Don't worry, he won't talk."
Yuuta made an exchange with Naoya. If he lied to the elders that Yuji is dead and doesn't mention anything about Kei, then he'd heal him in full health.
Naoya gradually accepted that and Yuuta helps him much to Kei's disgust.
Kei didn't like the idea of letting him live so he does something to Naoya.
"Hey, leave me alone! I agree to lying about the vessel!"
"I know," Kei says coldly before taking his knife from him.
"Kei.."
"I'm not going to hurt him." He says to Yuuta and then he grabs a chunk of his hair.
"W-Wait, what are you doing?!"
"For ruining my hair last time." He says before slicing chunks of his hair, leaving bald spots.
"You FUCKIN bastard!!!" The man screams on the floor and Kei simply laughs.
Yuuta simply looks on before calling to Kei.
"Also, there's someone you have to see..."
Kei blinks for a moment and stares puzzled. Him and Yuuta carried Choso and Yuji over to his hideout at an abandoned metro station.
There, who awaited him was Megumi. He sees him by the campfire.
"Megumi, you're here too?"
Megumi looks at him, a little pissed over their fight from many, many days ago.
"Look, I'm sorry Megumi for what I did. But you tried to stop me, what was I-
"Idiot, you really shouldn't be apologizing to me." He growled and then someone comes from the shadows.
His whole body trembles and he stands there. His face looks like he just saw a ghost and heck, maybe he is.
But he realizes that she wasn't a ghost when she comes up close, an eyepatch covering the eye she lost.
"N-Nobs?!"
She comes up to him and doesn't say anything. Instead she whips out something from behind but he's so distracted that he doesn't see.
Suddenly, his face is slammed hard with a rubber mallot. He groans, touching his cheek from the new pain.
He hissed and touched his cheek,
"Wait, what-"
"Remember when you told me your goal as a sorcerer, Kei? You told me that you don't want people to feel the same pain as you felt. When you said that, did it also mean you also wanted to go on a whim and kill millions of lives?!"
He's shocked by her outburst. She clearly was angry at him.
But deep down, he felt sad. He was imagining this to be a time of joy. The two would hug and kiss again, and he would find himself go back to normal.
But nothing's normal about this.
"Look I know you were upset over me, but were you really going to commit genocide under my name?! I NEVER want to be the cause of that and you, Kei, have made me feel disgusted by how you reacted!
No sane person thinks of those things!"
"NOBS, YOU WERE DEAD!" Kei shouts at her, "I was emotional and felt my world was crashing! Then there was Yagi's execution sentence because of me and everything that happened was of me!"
"And you think killing everyone was going to ease your pain?"
"In that moment, yes." He admits and Nobara groans. "I just wanted everything to stop. I just wanted all my problems to go away!"
"Kei, I'm sorry, but you sound psychotic. And the fact you almost killed Megumi-"
"I did not! I knew Yuuta would come help out. I just wanted to push him away."
"And why, Kei? Why do you still push us away!"
"BECAUSE I WANT TO PROTECT ALL OF YOU!"
Nobara rolls her eyes,
"Here we go again!" She says with a frown.
"See that's your problem, Kei. You kept pushing people away. You never want us to help and you're still the same way! I thought you would trust us, trust me by now!"
He shakes his head at this. They don't get it. They just don't get it.
They haven't experience what he experienced with fake Getou.
"I'm sorry, Kei...I'm glad you're alive but I'm also pretty upset how you acted..."
"How the hell was I suppose to know you were going to be brought back by Yuuta. Shoko couldn't do it and I thought there was no hope."
"Well I'm Nobara Kugisaki and something like Mahito's trick couldn't stop me. You should know that by now!"
"Ohhh, sorry!" Kei scoffs sarcastically and Nobara gets more mad,
"See, you didn't even have hope that I would live.."
"Because I lost too many people. I-I thought it would be the same with you.."
The two remain silence after their argument.
"Well like I said, I'm disappointed in you Kei..."
He looks at her. He wants to hold her, tightly as possible but he didn't want to overstep his boundaries.
He's so happy she's alive but at the same time, he feels offended by some of what she said.
He DOES care for her but with all the shit he went through, he felt hopeless.
He never expected the miracle in front of him to occur.
"So..where do we stand, Nobara.."
She looks at him with sorrowful eyes,
"I think...I don't know, Kei. About us, I mean..
I think we should take a break from each other."
His heart shatters to a million of pieces. Tears want to come but they don't.
"So what, we break up?"
"Yes, for now at least. I still need to think some more."
He hunged his head down in defeat. He could not force her to change her mind.
But he's upset that she seems to be throwing what they had right away.
Isn't that the point of a relationship? To work with the issues at hand?
He feels so sad and then he sucks the courage to finally respond,
"O-Okay.."
—
I mean, did she make the right choice? 😕