wasteland, baby! [fushiguro megumi]

20: yokohama

september 2018

tokyo prefectural jujutsu high school

third person pov

"hey tsumiki ... i'm sorry for not coming sooner."

cold was the air in the private hospital room that held fushiguro tsumiki, cursed and barely alive. the stale churning of the air conditioner, the foreboding beeps of the heart rate monitor; it's no wonder keiko detested hospitals as much as she detested graves, for a hospital is simply just a rite of passage to death in her eyes.

"i really missed you, and i bet megumi does too." keiko scooted closer, her warm yet trembling hands barely holding on to tsumiki's cold and lifeless ones.

megumi had his back against the wall, giving keiko space since this was her first time seeing tsumiki in this state — devoid of laughter, with an atrocious seal marked on her forehead that only shamans could see.

"what happened to you ... ?" keiko's voice now meek and quivering. "you know, i wanted to tell you all about my training overseas. i wanted to thank you for keeping me company, your letters never failed to keep my spirits up even after you told me that megumi didn't want to talk to me anymore."

the raven frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he chewed the insides of his mouth, clearly regretting his petty, prepubescent actions. though no words were spoken between the two, a small smile tugged on keiko's face as it warmed her heart still, to be able to be in the same room with her two childhood friends, even if the circumstances weren't the greatest.

"but i don't think he hates me anymore, we've been ... closer. it's almost like you predicted." a soft laugh escaped from her nose.

"remember what you wrote once? you kept trying to convince me that megumi's not half as bad as what i thought. and you told me that if he were to pick between the two of us, he'd definitely pick me. and you said we were definitely gonna date and how you're gonna tease the hell out of us for it ... and i'm sorry for getting upset when you didn't write back anymore, i didn't think that this would be the reason."

a momentary silence, while keiko finally gave in to the trickle of tears that were begging to be released from her swollen eyelids.

"so please wake up soon ... you'd be more than happy to see how we're doing now. wake up so you can tease us, wake up so you can say 'i told you so', wake up so i can give you the big hug i promised you ..."

please wake up, tsumiki. it hurts to see you like this, you don't deserve it.

keiko shuffled back on her feet, fiddling with her fingers just over the seal on tsumiki's forehead, looking at the raven for permission. "may i?"

at his slight nod, a gentle spark of scarlet cursed energy glowed from her fingers while she tried to examine the seal. not long before she was startled by a strange shockwave that was emitted the moment her fingers made contact with tsumiki's forehead, causing keiko to retract her hand immediately.

"what is it?" megumi probed, noticing the frown on her face as she stared at her fingers.

that cursed presence, it felt almost ... familiar? why?

"nothing, i can't figure out what or who cursed her. guess we have to do it the hard way." keiko sighed, bringing her hands to gently grab onto tsumiki's again. "we'll get you out of this nightmare, hang on for a little while longer tsumiki."

keiko and megumi began to head back to the school premises, after they had accidentally read the bombardment of messages from their first years group chat, saying that gojo was waiting for keiko with a seemingly urgent mission.