Bound by Obligation

Beneath Fractured Souls

The month passed without incident, as if the very air around them was holding its breath. The arrangement Suguru had made with Kira was almost too good to be true. Until that night.

The quiet had settled over the house like a comforting blanket, softening the corners of everything. Outside, a mist gathered under a dim half-moon, making even the smallest shadows stretch long and lean. Inside, the darkness wrapped itself around each room, leaving just the soft hum of an old clock ticking somewhere nearby. Everyone was surely asleep—everyone except him.

Suguru lay restless in bed, eyes half-lidded against the ceiling, thoughts a vague whisper of unanswered questions. His mind refused the lull of sleep, attuned to something...he wasn't sure what, but he felt it all the same. Then came the sound. The sharp, guttural cough echoed through the house, slicing through the silence like an alarm. He sat up with a start, every sense suddenly on high alert.

Sighing, Suguru rose from his bed and made his way down the narrow hallway toward the kitchen, each step somehow noiseless yet charged with purpose. The closer he got, the worse the coughing became, deep and splintered by pain. A chill crawled up his spine as he peered around the corner and saw her.

Kira was collapsed on the floor, her shoulders hunched and her face ghostly pale in the faint light, one hand clamped tightly over her mouth. Blood stained her fingers, and droplets of it had begun to speckle the floor around her.

"Hey, what's going on?" he demanded, his tone rougher than he intended but barely disguising the concern threading through it.

Kira shook her head, her eyes wide with an emotion he couldn't quite read—fear, or maybe disbelief. For a moment, her gaze flicked toward him before drifting down, as though she were fighting to keep something hidden. He exhaled sharply, feeling his patience wane as he took a step closer, noting the tremor in her body. "Don't ignore me. Answer the question."

Kira barely managed to whisper, "I don't know what's happening." Her voice was hoarse, each word scratching painfully through her throat.

Suguru clenched his jaw, his frustration mounting as he knelt beside her, inspecting her trembling hands. "You don't know?" he repeated, his voice laced with an irritated sarcasm. "You're coughing up blood, and you're saying you have no clue why?"

But then he noticed her eyes—brimming with tears, threatening to spill over as she struggled for air. It was strange seeing her like this; Kira wasn't the type to cry, at least not in front of him. For a moment, he was struck by the sheer vulnerability she displayed, almost enough to soften him. Almost.

"Why are you crying?" His voice lowered, his grip loosening slightly on her chin.

"Because it hurts," she finally said, and her words felt raw, stripped of any shield.

"Duh, I can see that. But that doesn't answer why you're coughing up blood." His frustration bubbled over again, twisting his tone with irritation. As she shook her head, he could feel something deeper shift within him, unsettling him.

"My back," she managed to gasp, "it hurts too. And I can't breathe without feeling...something."

"Something?" he echoed, confusion pulling at his features. He didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to feel a pang of something else—fear, or maybe empathy. Something he wasn't sure he was comfortable with.

Her hand drifted toward her back as if she could pull something out of her skin. Alarmed, he grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Hey, stop that. You're only making it worse."

Her voice was a thin thread, barely audible, "It's on my skin."

His brow creased, a cold suspicion creeping over him. "Under your skin? What the hell do you mean?"

"I can feel it..." she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath.

He could sense the rawness in her insistence, like she was trying to explain something inexplicable, and it made him shiver. Something terrible was at play here, something he couldn't yet understand. He leaned closer, studying the purple bruise that spread across her skin, and then he saw it—a curse, embedded beneath the surface, as though it was seeping into her flesh.

For once, he felt his steady facade slip. His heart hammered against his ribs. He had never seen anything quite like this.

His voice softened, barely audible over the frantic beat of his pulse. "Kira, I know it hurts. Just...try to hold on. I'll help you, okay?"

The briefest glimmer of relief washed over her eyes, and she nodded, mutely agreeing to his request, a quiet surrender in her submission that only served to deepen his resolve.

Suguru braced himself as he positioned his hands over the mark, casting her a final glance. "This might hurt. Just stay still." His fingers hovered over the curse, feeling its malignant energy pulse against his own. It took everything in him to keep his hand steady, not to flinch as he worked to pull it free. As his fingers dug slightly, he felt her hand clamp onto his leg, squeezing hard enough to bruise. But he didn't flinch.

She whispered an apology between gasps of pain, and for a brief moment, he almost smiled, despite the grim situation. "Just relax, okay?" he said, his voice rougher than he intended but laced with reassurance. "You're crushing my leg here."

He felt her grip loosen just enough to continue. With a careful, focused pull, he finally managed to detach the curse from her skin, watching it disintegrate the moment it left her body. Relief washed over him, and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"It's off," he said, the words filling the stillness that followed. "You're safe now."

She looked at him, eyes still glassy with unshed tears, and murmured, "Thank you."

For a long moment, they simply sat there, the silence around them no longer heavy with fear, but something gentler. There, in the quiet aftermath, Suguru felt something shift between them—an understanding, a fragile connection forged by that night's trials.

.