TO LOVE A MONSTER ❪ jujutsu kaisen ❫

xxvi: the aftermath and the change in two monsters.

TOKYO JUJUTSU HIGH, 22ND DECEMBER 2016.

In the aftermath, Kaori floats. Her body feels listless and she feels like nothing more than a speck of dirt floating in the air amongst thousands other things.

"You lied to me," Khaos's voice is a hiss. She must be in its domain if the all encompassing darkness says anything. Within its home, the creature looks as frightening as the stories portrayed it to be. Its form is a hulking mass, distinct from the darkness around it by the red outlining its giant form, black tendrils move in multiple directions and Kaori is reminded of a cat throwing a fit when it does not get what it wants, having to bite her lip to stop the laugh from escaping. "You lied to me," it repeats, sounding hurt and petulant like a little child. Kaori glances at it.

"I would have never given you utter control over my body," she answers smoothly. "To trust you is like trusting Fujiwara-sama, except at least he is mortal. You are an all powerful Curse who wants to destroy everything in mankind. Did you not try to hurt everyone right now?" Khaos bristles at the coldness in her voice. It is eons old and just as powerful but just as arrogance had been its falling back then it is the same now. It had dismissed Kaori like the others had done despite knowing of the thoughts that roamed the girl's head and now it was here.

"You would die if you kept your friends safe?"

"They would do the same for me," she replies and Khaos hates this girl. It hates Fujiwara Kaori and it had hated her mother too. It knew everything about the girl, from the fact that Khaos had passed down from her mother ❪ beautiful, charming and horrendously powerful despite being nothing but a vessel ❫ to the horrors of her childhood. Khaos has had a thousand owners, been controlled and twisted to carry out the whims and vengeances of men from as far as before cities even became made of metal and winding cars. Fujiwara Kaori, it has to admit grudgingly, isn't the worst of them at all. Years ago, the girl had stared at it in the confines of her mind and seen the way it had growled at her from where it was shackled and let it go. She had kept it at bay, of course she did. She was not a fool, made wiser beyond her years by the death of her brother and the wrath of her mentor, but she had a glint of kindness, of humanity that thousands before her refused to show to it. Khaos still resented being stuck in this small form, hated that it was forever doomed to spend the remainder of its life fluctuating between the gap in her rib cages and the dark shadows of her mind, but it could have been worse. It could have been worse.

"You are not dead," it says and her head snaps to face it. "The boy has healed you and I am sure you will live," Kaori may be unaware of Yuuta slumped over her form, pleading for her to come back, imbuing cursed energy into his raspy voice that causes her motionless fingers to twitch. Amusing, the lengths people will go to for love. 

"Will you hurt them?" she questions warily and Khaos stares at the human.  

"I will not," it replies at last.

"Promise it," her eyes are fierce and she brings her face close to it, fearless in her journey to keep her friends safe. "Swear,"

"Sorcerers, so fickle and distrustful," it scoffs and then loops a tendril around Kaori's wrist where she had slashed her skin open to offer it her blood. "I swear," Kaori smiles then, relieved and grateful and Khaos is sick of the vulnerability it has offered to her. "Be gone now," it says sharply and Kaori feels her consciousness flicker from the insides of her mind back to her body.

She's lying on the ground and the stones and rubble dig into her spine, making jolts of pain shoot up once her awareness starts coming back. Something wet drops down onto her face and she can hear breath hitching awfully as warm arms hold her close to a body. "Kaori-kun," a voice, so wrecked that her name sounds like it is painful for it to say, says into her ear. "Kaori-kun," the affectionate prefix is unfamiliar but the voice is certainly not and the familiarity of the person floods back into her mind. She opens her mouth, pushing past the dryness of her throat to reply.