The Kid I Used to Know

How To Care For Your Human Brother

Shibuya was decimated. That was the only possible way to describe it, really. Whatever part of the population that had survived the fallout had fled the area, so Yuji was unsurprised to hear nothing besides the echoes of his and Choso's footsteps as they wandered the area. The chunks of debris and abandoned cars that littered the streets made walking a bit trickier than usual, but after several days of this aimless wandering, Yuji had adjusted and could almost manage it blindfolded by now, which was probably a good thing considering how preoccupied he seemed to Choso.

"Yuji," Choso said, breaking the several hour long silence between them and coming to a pause on the corner of the street.

Yuji paused as well, "Do you hear something?"

Taking a moment to observe Yuji head on while he glanced around, most likely looking for whatever had drawn his brother's attention, Choso noticed the dark circles under Yuji's eyes had grown several shades darker in the past few hours, how his brother's shoulders slumped just a bit more than earlier, and how every movement seemed to take just a bit more effort to complete. His brother was exhausted, but Choso knew getting him to admit it was going to take more effort than it was worth.

"There's only a few more hours until sunset," Choso began carefully, "Now would be the optimal time to stop for a rest in order to be refreshed for the night."

For a moment, Choso thought Yuji was going to refuse, but then his brother's posture sagged and he seemed to visibly give up on shoving down his exhaustion, "Yeah, okay. Just for a few hours though."

Choso nodded, "Of course, Yuji. I think that building across the street would be a good place to rest."

The building in question was an abandoned hotel, which Choso knew would have everything he or Yuji could need to rest for the next several hours, maybe even the night if Choso could manage to convince his brother to rest for that long. Yuji simply turned towards the building and started walking towards it before he could even fully register which building it was. His brother had been like that recently, an odd mix of defiant and stubborn while also seemingly uncaring and happy to follow Choso's suggestions. To Choso, it seemed rather like his brother had given up on everything except killing curses.

Shortly after the incident which led to the current wreckage they waded through in Shibuya, Choso had found his brother and explained their relationship to him in better depth than their fight earlier had allowed. Yuji seemed a bit unsettled by the revelation at first, but told Choso that he believed him and accepted him as his brother. He seemed even more unsettled by the revelation that this meant that he had killed one of his brothers and helped to kill another, asking Choso how he could possibly forgive him for killing them. Choso explained that it wasn't a matter of forgiving, but rather that they were family and that was what family did for one another.

Besides, what was done was done. Eso and Kechizu were dead and Yuji was alive. As the eldest brother, it was Choso's responsibility to look out for his younger siblings. He had failed them all already, allowing Eso and Kechizu to fight their youngest brother and die, not realizing the relationship with his youngest brother earlier, fighting his youngest brother and almost killing him. Yuji did not hold these sins against him, so Choso wouldn't hold Yuji's against him either. The entire situation had been a misunderstanding and simply wouldn't happen again.

Initially, Choso had thought Yuji would return to Jujutsu High, but when he refused and claimed to want to continue hunting down curses, Choso was relieved to not have to let his brother out of his sight immediately. However, that relief soon turned to worry when he noticed how hard Yuji would push himself to kill as many curses as possible and how quiet his brother was. The few things Yuji did say led Choso to believe he was suffering from the events at Shibuya, but Choso was unsure how to help.