Akatsuki: The Second Act (Magi Ja'far X Fem Reader)

We Meet Again

(Y/n)

I feel the needle-like prick of tears in my eyes. "What's wrong?" the child, who is unmistakably my little brother, asks. He's scrawny and slightly tanned from all those hours playing in the sun. His ruby eyes contain a spark of mischief and eagerness. Hastily, I blink away my tears.

"I'm fine," I say, managing a smile. "Okay. Then, let's play hide and seek! You'd better find me before supper, or you owe me two days' worth of dessert," he calls, already running off into the distance. Staggering to my feet, I go after him.

"Wait!" I yell. He skids and stops on the slightly damp grass, sticking a tongue out at me. "No cheating, sister. You're supposed to close your eyes and count to ten first," he laughed, jumping away nimbly just as I'm about to grab him.

Running freely across the field, heedless of the mud that splattered our legs and clothes, laughing our heads off like crazy people...it's just like back then when we were just kids.

Except for one thing.

Whenever my fingers are just an inch away from reaching my brother, my feet grow heavy, as if something were dragging them down. This happens about a dozen times before I realise that we're right next to the stream I heard earlier. The sky is now painted scarlet by the sunset, which means it's only a few minutes before supper. Laughing gleefully, my brother splashes into the clear, burbling water...then vanishes. "What? But the stream doesn't even look that deep," I mutter, frowning. Without hesitating, I dive in too.

Strange. The water isn't as clear as it looked. Under the surface, it's silent, murky and fathomless, as if I'm swimming in an ocean at midnight. With the bizarre darkness pressing in around me, I start to feel suffocated. My lungs scream for air. But where's my brother?

I glance up towards the surface and relief surges over me. The faint silhouette of a scrawny boy hovers over me at the water's surface. This time, when I swim towards him and grab his ankle, nothing holds me back. The moment my head bursts out of the water, I laugh triumphantly...or, at least, as triumphantly as possible while taking in giant gulps of air.

"Gotcha!" I exclaim in between pants. But something's wrong. My brother stays unmoving, floating face-down in a spreading circle of crimson-stained water. No amount of frantic shaking or shrieking can revive my brother's cold, lifeless body.

"How?" My voice sounds choked with pain and shock as I hold his limp body. He was so alive just a while ago. Suddenly, I feel something brush against me. I turn to look and instantly regret it. My parents' bodies lay floating and gaping at me, their horrified expressions frozen at the moment of their death. More bodies – the other villagers – start to surface, blood blooming in the water like scarlet lily pads.

"What a pity. If only you'd found him sooner," a familiar voice drawls. Judal stands by the bloodstained stream, meeting my anguished glare with an indolent stare. Gritting my teeth, I try to lunge at him, but something heavy around my legs stops me. It's the same weight that prevented me from catching my brother earlier.

"Hey! Aren't you impressed by this nightmare I crafted for you? I made sure to make it extra vivid," he says, his face breaking into a sinister smile. Frustrated, I struggle harder to get out of the water. But the weight dragging me down is heavy, so heavy.

"I'm just messing with you!" laughs Judal before leaning closer until he's just out of my reach, tantalising me, mocking me as I flail powerlessly in the water. "Just some information before you go. Your real brother – not the dead one floating over there – is alive and still with Al Thamen," he says.

I freeze.

"Wha-"

The second I stop struggling against the force, it pulls me underwater. In the dim light painted red by the bloody water, I can finally see who is dragging me down. The mangled bodies of my former teacher and Al Thamen's puppets cling onto my legs.

Ja'far

I jolt awake to the sound of a chair crashing to the floor. (Y/n) is standing beside me, gripping her shoulders and breathing raggedly. 

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" I ask frantically. Quickly, I scan her body for any sign of injury, and find none. Then that probably means one thing. "Another nightmare?" I ask after her breathing steadies. She looks up and gives me a reassuring smile, saying, "Yeah. Just the usual." An obvious lie. God, she's not even good at faking smiles. 

She rights the chair and smooths her messy hair. "Look! It's morning already. I should probably go," she says, pointing at the eggshell-blue sky outside the window, which I didn't even notice before.

As she leaves the room, I have to stop myself from prying. Stop myself from calling her back even though she still looks very upset and weary.

Sinbad

Hm. Something's different about (y/n). 

Sharrkan shrieks in pain as she lands a solid kick to his groin.

Very different.

These past few days, her attacks have grown more vicious, more relentless. Stronger. Faster. But replacing the calm way she formulated a plan to defeat her opponent is a sort of fury...or is it frustration? Of course, her face still doesn't show any of those feelings, but I can see it in the way she attacks. Where she would normally dodge or retreat, she stays aggressive and doesn't stop attacking.

And right now, that's a deadly flaw. 

Sharrkan sends (y/n)'s sword flying into the bushes before attacking her. Summoning magoi into her arm, she blocks him. With her other magoi-charged hand, she breaks his sword in two. To a normal bystander, it would seem like an astounding feat. But I know better. That move used up quite a lot of magoi. 

Plus, a broken sword is still a sword, especially when Sharrkan's wielding it. "What's wrong with you? You've been acting weird," yells Sharrkan mid-lunge. (Y/n) stays silent and keeps blocking and attacking him. This can't go on any longer.

"Stop!" I yell. But she doesn't. Still in her strange and violent trance, she keeps attacking. 

"I said stop!"

She knocks Sharrkan down, letting her magoi-filled fist hover a few inches away from his chest. "Why?" she says. "I was doing fine." 

"No, (y/n). You're not," says Sharrkan, looking her firmly in the eye. She reaches a hand to her mouth and finally notices the blood trickling from it. "You didn't win this fight. Unlike you, I listened to Sinbad and stopped. Had you gone on any longer, you would've gotten even more hurt," he says, standing up to face her. "(Y/n), why are you pushing yourself like this?" 

She doesn't reply, her (e/c) eyes concealing whatever maelstrom of emotions churning inside her. 

"Until you remember how to control your magoi usage and yourself, I'm not training you," I say to her sternly. A shocked and saddened look crosses her face, and I wonder if I went too far. Yet that moment son passes and she replies with her usual, "Hai. I understand."

As she walks away, I can't help but feel that she's distancing herself not only from the training grounds, but also from us.

Author's Note: I really hope I can find more time to write so that I can hurry up and get to the happier part.