The Reservation (Nanami Kento || JJK)

Death and Deal-making

Helllloooo!! First chapter is a bit long to set the stage and explain the cast dynamics. Please be aware that this chapter deals with death and grieving. If you want to skip this chapter, I'll include a summary in the end notes so you don't miss any important details <3

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My brother died at only seventeen years of age. He'd barely lived.

I was fifteen when it happened. When the fateful phone call came through, and my grandmother fell to the floor in a weeping fit, wailing on and on about how cruel fate was to take him away so soon.

I'd just gotten home from school. Setting my bag on the floor, I shuffled into the kitchen quieter than a doormouse. All plans of telling Grandma about the award I won at school for my charcoal portrait of her went out the window. Who cared about a silly award when the world was crashing down around us?

"Grandma?" I asked, unsure if any sound had even come out.

Still on the floor, she said through spiteful tears, "Yu was right to forbid you to ever step foot in that school! That damn school and those damn curses!"

Grandma never cursed. Never. That was how I knew she had reached her absolute limits, which could only mean...

Yu was dead.

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We had a late summer funeral service. Dressed in all black and sweating like animals, the only bright side was that I could disguise my tears as sweat.

Not that anyone cared if I was balling my eyes out at my big brother's funeral...

After that was the cremation, and that was indoors at least. Then lastly the memorial service, laying him to rest once and for all with a final goodbye.

It felt beyond wrong to say goodbye forever when the last time I saw him, he'd been talking about bringing me home a souvenir from his big mission. I wasn't allowed to go to Jujutsu High, but Yu was, and he flourished there. Still, he never wanted me to follow in his footsteps. Something about wanting to take care of me as the older brother.

Not that I could even go to Jujutsu High... I was just a window. If I had any special technique or knack for cursed energy manipulation, it was buried deep inside. Practically dormant. Or nonexistent.

Nonetheless, I knew that people who could see curses still had a place at the school. There were administrative assistant roles, and other reconnaissance positions to help out the sorcerers. When I first learned that some windows went to Jujutsu High, I'd thrown a fit at Yu's feet, begging him to let me go so I could help him fight curses better.

He forbade me again, and I cried myself to sleep before giving up on the dream.

Now? In the wake of his death?

I should have fought back harder. I should have gone anyway. I should have ignored his order and enrolled myself so I could have done more to prepare him for his mission. Maybe if I had been on the job, I would have caught the error earlier on. Maybe Yu wouldn't have come face to face with a grade 1 curse on accident. Maybe he would have survived it.

Maybe maybe maybe—

It was pointless wishing for a different outcome. Time travel didn't exist as far as I was aware, and the world would keep on spinning, with or without my brother in it.

As we walked out of the ossuary into the blazing light of day, I instantly missed the cold chill of the tombs in the building behind me. Cupping a hand over my brow to shield my eyes from the light, I stepped out onto the curb, looking up and down the street for the car that brought me and my grandmother here.