Chapter Text
“Uh, are those the Kyoto Tech students?” Yuji observed in both surprise and uncertainty.
Megumi joined him at the window, parting the curtain a little more to see. “It appears so.” His frown seeped into his tone. “Strange, what business do they have with us now?”
Finally, Nobara came up beside Megumi and pulled the curtain the rest of the way, more confused than curious. They haven’t seen the Kyoto students since the Goodwill Event. Can’t imagine they’d come all the way here for a rematch, Nobara thought wryly to herself.
“Gojo didn’t message us about a meeting did he?” Yuji wondered and even went to fish out his phone from his back pocket to check.
“Wouldn’t put it past him that he’d forget telling us altogether,” Nobara joked, but her gaze had yet to leave the rushing figures currently crossing their campus. “Whatever it is, they look like they’re in a hurry.” That was really all either of them could see from their vantage point. While Yuji’s room offered a decent view, they were just high enough to make out any discerning details. Speculation only gave her the sinking feeling that nothing about this was good.
On a whim, just before the group fell too far out of sight, Nobara leaned forward and squinted. Kasumi’s blue hair was easy to spot, and even more so was Todo’s muscular frame that towered over all of them. But there was something else and Nobara wished that cursed energy could somehow enhance her sight. Todo had something in his arms...
The sinking feeling in her gut intensified. No, not something. Someone. She’s sure of it.
Confirmation didn’t come until minutes later when Megumi’s phone went off with the screen displaying Maki’s name. His frown returned as he answered the call. “Maki?”
Tense quiet befell the room as Maki’s voice sounded in his ear. Nobara couldn’t hear a word of it but suddenly Megumi’s eyes found hers as he spoke, “Yes, she’s right here. One moment.” He took the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker.
That was all the prompting Nobara needed. “Maki? What’s going on?”
“Nobara,” came the response and never before had she heard Maki sound so panicked. Not even when they were ambushed by those Special Grades. “This is going to sound crazy, but you need to come to the infirmary as soon as you can.”
Nobara blinked. “Sure okay. Is everything alright?” She winced as soon as the obviously wrong words left her mouth. “Forget I said that. Does this have anything to do with the Kyoto people suddenly being here?”
“It’s Mai.” Maki said, simply yet shaking just beneath the surface of her composure. It hurt to hear.
“I’ll be right there,” Nobara affirmed and handed the phone back to Megumi before turning on her heel to sprint to the infirmary. She had no idea why she would be needed for anything regarding Mai’s well-being, but if Maki calls for her, she’ll come through. No questions asked.
When she arrived, she found Maki sitting in one of the chairs outside one of the bays, presumably where Shoko was treating her sister. Nobara’s footsteps reached her ears and she raised her head slowly like she bore a heavy weight around her neck.
“I thought the Kyoto students would be around,” Nobara said by way of a greeting.
“Shoko dismissed them when they started getting too rowdy. That, and she knew I wanted to talk to you.” Maki attempted a small smile, though it couldn’t reach her eyes. “Thank you for coming.”
Nobara offered one in return. “Yuji was just going on about his manga collection again, so if anything you did me a favor.”
Maki chuckled, and for the briefest moment not looking as wound up as before.
But a moment was all they had to spare. Whatever had happened to Mai must be serious if Kyoto Tech had to involve Shoko. Nobara eased herself into the chair next to Maki. “So what’s going on?”
“There was an incident a few days ago. Standard mission dealing with a Grade 3 curse. Mai and Momo Nishimiya were paired up for it. Then they were ambushed by a Grade 2 and... Well, long story short, Mai is under a sleeping curse. The faculty at Kyoto did everything they could to try and reverse it.”
It was easy to fill in the blanks from there. “And now Shoko is their last hope,” Nobara intoned with a heavy sigh. She didn’t like Mai, but even she wouldn’t wish for a curse to be laid on her.
“...Yes and no,” Maki added with an audible wince.
“Huh?”
“There’s a chance that Shoko might not be able to break it. Fulfilling the curse’s conditions may end up being the only way,” Maki elaborated, dragging a heavy hand down her face.
“Damn,” Nobara hissed. “Okay so what do we know? Sleeping curses—not terribly common, but definitely not unheard of. What’s so special about this one? My grandmother dealt with a few back in the day, maybe I know some stuff that can help.”
“From what Shoko has been able to tell, the spirit that made it was crafty and had a sense of humor. The worst traits for a spirit to have, if you ask me.”
“Don’t I know it,” Nobara concurred.
“Shoko could probably explain it better than I could, but what we’re dealing with isn’t...” She struggled, then redirected. “You’ve seen what sleeping curses are like in movies, yeah?”
“Well, sure, who hasn’t?” A thought occurred to her in that same instance. “Ohhh okay, so it’s like, what? ‘True-love’s kiss’ or something stupid like that? Does Mai have a boyfriend that can just—” She gestured vaguely.
Maki sighed, falling back against her seat and her eyes raising towards the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling. “If it were that easy do you think they’d rush her all the way to Tokyo?”
When Nobara shrugged helplessly, Maki’s eyes fell closed in a show of submission to a resignation of a long known fact. “Besides, even if she did, I doubt I’d ever know about it.”
“Ah...” Nobara shifted, unsure of how to respond. Being an only child, she couldn’t pretend to understand the gravity of Maki’s words. Having a sibling sounded... difficult. More than her own sanity could deal with for sure. But she wasn’t here to discuss family, or at least, she assumed that wasn’t the case. “So how do I fit into all this? You’re not the type to just call on emotional support.”
If Maki could look any more uncomfortable than she already did, Nobara bore witness to it then. “Shoko has a theory,” she began, slow and hesitant with every syllable uttered. “The whole ‘true-love’s kiss’ thing is pulling on the right thread but—”
Before she could continue, the door squealed open, and right on cue out stepped Shoko.
Maki sat up, her expression dancing between relief and dread in equal measure. “How is she?”
The doctor pulled up another chair, turning it about so she could rest her arms on the backrest and address them both. “She’s stable. I was able to give her body the nourishment it hasn’t been able to get since she fell asleep, so dying of starvation is off the table.”
Nobara stiffened, her head swimming and dizzy with the sudden rise in stakes only for it to mellow out with Shoko’s reassurance. Maki apparently went through the same sensation as the tension in her shoulders rose and fell like a tide in time with her frenetic thoughts.
“So you aren’t able to break the curse?” Maki asked, though the answer was already clear.
Shoko pushed her fingers through the loose fringes of her hair that fell over her eyes, “It’s a strong one, and it’s already burrowed too deep in Mai’s cursed energy,” she explained. “Our assumptions were right. Only fulfilling its conditions will break it at this point. It’s good you’ve called Kugisaki.”
Nobara’s brows raised as she looked between the two of them. “What do you mean? I still don’t know why I’m here.”
To that, Shoko shot Maki with an unamused look, likely expecting that Nobara would’ve been caught up to speed by now.
“I was getting around to it,” Maki defended and reiterated the points she did manage to cover. From there, Shoko took over.
“The spirit behind Mai’s curse was a crafty one,” she began, echoing the earlier sentiment. “Thanks to folktales and modern media, sleeping curses basically became a harmless storytelling trope and thus reduced how often they occurred in real life. On its own, its prevalence in our collective consciousness prevents it from being effective and I could reverse it with my technique. But I can’t with Mai’s.”
“I’m guessing this is where the spirit’s ‘sense of humor’ comes in?” Nobara surmised.
“I’m afraid so.” She twisted a lock of her hair idly. “Kind of like how we can reveal our techniques to make them stronger, I’m thinking that the spirit used the sleeping curse’s popularity against us. Not only that, there’s another likelihood that the curse was strengthened by introducing a condition that subverts the conventions of a sleeping curse.”
“A subversion?” Nobara mulled it over and remembered that Maki had said ‘true-love’s kiss’ was on the right track. “So instead of being kissed by someone who loves her, Mai has to be kissed by someone who—”
Realization struck like a freight train and Nobara leapt from her seat. “No way! Absolutely not!” she shouted so loud and emphatic that her voice echoed down both ends of the infirmary’s long hallway.
Shoko shrugged at her outburst, and pulled out a flask from inside her coat.
“Come on, you can’t be serious,” Nobara insisted, to both of them now. This is ridiculous. It has to be some kind of joke and somehow Maki is in on this too. But as soon as she thought that, she knew it couldn’t be true. Maki’s anguish was indisputable.
Still, doubt snagged at the back of her mind. “There’s no way that this could work.”
Shoko snapped her fingers. “Thinking like that is exactly what the curse is counting on,” she said, as plain and deadpanned as if she were discussing the weather—after all, Nobara’s reaction and denial were just as, if not more than, predictable. “Here’s the state of play here: I can sustain Mai’s body for as long as I’m able, but the long-term effects of being under a sleeping curse as strong as this one will only worsen from here. Maybe even become permanent if left alone for too long.”
A growl sounded from Maki’s throat, nearly imperceptible if not for the dead silence that befell them all at Shoko’s unyielding statement.
Nobara’s fingers curled into a tight fist at her side. If that cursed spirit was already exorcised, she’d hunt it down herself. “Damn it.”
“Nobara,” Maki’s voice cut through the disquiet, bringing both their gazes up to meet. From beneath the fluorescent glare of her glasses, Nobara spotted the rim of red in her eyes, the shine of unshed tears, and the plea that thus spilled further from her tone. “She’s my sister. I understand where you’re coming from, I do, but for you to at least try is all I ask. Please...?”
And just like that, what was left of her protest and refusal died out the rest of the way. This whole situation is far from ideal for her, but Maki’s request reminded her unabashedly that it was much worse. “Okay. I’ll try.”
Maki gave her a thankful nod just as Shoko rose from her chair to open the door to Mai’s room.
She motioned Nobara inside with a jerk of her chin. “We’ll wait out here. Take your time, but try not to overthink it too much, alright? If it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work.”
Nobara only nodded and stepped into the room. Immediately, the sight of Mai’s slumbering form on a cot met her. She was thankful for the sound of the door closing firmly behind her, further solidifying her decision before the temptation to change it could take root.
With a short, fortifying draw of breath, she ventured towards the foot of the bed. The closer she came, the more she noticed that Mai looked thinner than when they first met. Not as gaunt as she surely could’ve been if not for Shoko’s intervention, but still a concerning sight to behold on someone who’d been such an annoyingly fiery personality from day one. The contrast of how at peace and restful Mai appeared to be was also difficult to ignore. Unbidden, the day they met suddenly came to Nobara’s mind. She smiled wryly as in the phantom reaches of her hearing, her biting remark about Mai not getting enough sleep on account of having ‘open pores’ had come full circle.
Mai wouldn’t find it as amusing, she’s sure.
“So you’ve got to be kissed by someone who hates you, huh?” Nobara ruminated aloud, unsure if Mai could even hear her, but talking helped keep her grounded. “Going off and getting cursed like this, I hope you realize the kind of bind you’ve put me in, you idiot.”
Mai continued to snore softly and soundly. If Nobara didn’t already know better, she’d think that she could wake up at any second and wished that she would, at least it’d save her the trouble.
“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Nobara said, though more to herself this time. She rounded the bed, coming up to stand at Mai’s left side. Before she knew what she was doing, she brushed aside the loose hairs from Mai’s face with a finger, then palmed her cheek. The quiet intakes of Mai’s breathing fell from her slightly parted lips, nothing about the serenity on her face betrayed anything—gave no indication that Mai was aware of what Nobara was going to do.
Nobara exhaled, lamenting. “This isn’t exactly how a girl imagines her first kiss, so if this works you owe me big time, you hear me?” she glowered, as if she needed to get the final word on this despite it being wholly one-sided. It’d be a cold day in hell before she’d admit that it was also to ignore how hard her heart was beating in her chest.
She leaned down, breath hitched and halted when mere inches separated their faces. She closed her eyes. With all her force of will, she conjured every memory she had of Mai. From her arrogance the day first met, the bullet holes she put in her tracksuit, the rubber bullet she drove into her temple during the Goodwill Event, and her audacious and coquettish ploy playing dumb at the baseball game. Never mind the baffling ache of actually missing it all if Mai never woke up, all of it added fuel to the hate stoking in the pit of her stomach Nobara hopes will help this along; all of it culminated to the resounding command that’d border on prayer if not for her own stubbornness as she gently pressed her lips to Mai’s. Wake the hell up.
When she pulled away, she had no idea how much time had passed. Seconds? Hours? It hardly mattered either way when all she could focus on was for any change on Mai’s face.
At last, with a twitch of a brow, a soft groan, and the slow opening of her eyes, Mai awoke.
Nobara watched her blink and take in her surroundings, her confusion and disorientation worn plainly. Eventually, she turned her head and found Nobara looking down at her.
It was then that, rather than a sneer or scorn, surprise washed across Mai’s expression the longer she stared. Against any better judgment, she sat up in the bed and before Nobara could admonish her for doing so, Mai said in a hush, “It’s you?”
Out of all the things she expected her to say, that wasn’t one of them. “Who were you expecting?”
“I—I don’t know, I thought...” Her words trailed off, and she made no attempt to find them again.
Nobara swayed from foot to foot beneath Mai’s unwavering and bewildered gaze, at a complete loss. The curse could only be broken by someone who hated her, that’s what Shoko said. So why was Mai looking at her like she had done something remarkable? And why did it feel like her heart was about to explode out of her chest?
Maybe this was some kind of side effect of the curse? Yeah, that must be it. No way in hell Mai of all people would stoop to this level of emotion. She forced herself to turn away. “I’ll go get Shoko.”
“Wait,” Mai called after her, but Nobara was already pulling the door open and rushing into the hallway.
“She’s awake,” she announced and kept walking without waiting for Shoko’s response or Maki’s relief.
By doing so, she missed the smirk that had curled its way onto the doctor’s lips. (Calling out a curse's double bluff never failed to be gratifying)