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Todo opens his eyes to pitch-black darkness. It engulfs anything and everything around him, filling the space between his fingers and stuffing his nostrils and ears. His head feels like it’s been stuffed to the brim with cotton and his senses are smothered by an invisible, weighted blanket.
It’s warm.
Todo’s ears are faintly ringing and he can feel the pulsing of his heart in them. Through the darkness, there is nothing but silence and comfortable warmth.
He tries to move, only to be held down by the blanket. Todo tries to fight it and attempts to thrash around, only to notice he has no feeling in his left hand.
Then Todo remembers the fight with Mahito.
He no longer has a left hand.
~
Yuki Tsukumo is speeding past Shibuya on her motorcycle when a horrible queasiness rips through her gut.
It’s a feeling she hasn’t gotten since a wayward curse escaped from her watch and gave her student a scar he would bear for the rest of his life.
Yuki immediately knows something is wrong with Aoi Todo.
~
Todo’s ears pick up on slight vibrations. They grow stronger with every second and he is barely able to discern the faint sound of someone’s voice.
The voice is vaguely familiar and Todo feels the slight weight of a person’s hand on his right shoulder.
“Ah,” thinks Todo. He recognizes this person. Someone from a long time ago.
Yuki Tsukumo.
~
Yuki is guided through the wreckage of Shibuya on pure instinct. She is led to a massive crater in the ground and spies something lying limply on the ground a few feet from the edge.
The special-grade sorcerer calls out and runs to the body of her former student. She kneels beside Todo and gently shakes him, shouting Todo’s name in hopes of waking him up.
Yuki then sees the blood pouring out of where Todo’s left hand used to be.
“ Shit ,” she mutters as she crudely tourniquets his arm.
He needs a doctor.
~
Todo hears sharp, steady beeping and low murmurs and feels cool, thin fabric against his body. The air smells lemony and sterile.
The hospital room, most likely Tokyo Jujutsu High.
~
Doctor Shoko Ieiri tells Yuki that Todo is suffering from blood loss and severe injuries that are scattered across his body. She tells Yuki, in a hushed voice, that Todo is “unresponsive to stimuli and most likely going to remain unconscious for the next few weeks.”
“Layman’s terms, please, Shoko.”
“He’s in a coma.”
~
Coma.
Todo knows from television that most people wake up from their comas. He knows that some don’t.
Todo remembers taking hits from Mahito, several of them being Black Flashes.
Coma.
~
Doctor Shoko Ieiri watches as Yuki Tsukumo exits the hospital room with her eyes dangerous and her gait purposeful.
Yuki practically rips the door open and walks out with a simple “be back soon.” Right before the door swings shut, a teenage boy dashes in and skids to a stop in the middle of the room.
He’s a wild-looking thing, with long dark bangs tied in front of his face, wheezing for breath. Blood stretches across the right side of his face and surrounds his right eye.
“ Where is he?” the boy demands.
Shoko recognizes him as one of the Kyoto Jujutsu High students, the one who inherited the Kamo clan’s Blood Manipulation Technique, Noritoshi Kamo. She pulls back the curtain concealing Todo’s bed and the Kamo boy rushes toward him.
“ Todo? ”
“He’s in a coma,” says Shoko. “He won’t respond.”
Noritoshi looks stricken as he slowly sinks into the chair beside Todo’s bed.
“I see,” he says after taking a moment to think. “Can he hear me?”
“There’s a chance of coma patients having the ability to hear things around them, but I have not yet confirmed that Todo will be able to.”
“I see,” Noritoshi uneasily repeats. His eyes fall upon the stump of Todo’s left wrist and Noritoshi’s face twists into a poorly-concealed, pained expression.
A minute passes and the only thing heard in the room is the heart monitor and Todo’s shallow breathing.
“I assume it’s too early to tell when he’s going to wake up,” Noritoshi says after a while. He fiddles with a loose string on the edge of Todo’s blanket.
“You’d be correct,” replies the doctor. She’s about to tell him that there’s no use in staying while the Culling Games are proceeding nearby, but then Shoko remembers something Utahime Iori told her a while back.
“His mom was exiled when he was young,” Iori tells her during one of their late-night video calls.
Ieiri exhales and blows her cigarette smoke into the brisk night air.
“Kid’s had it tough since birth. First of all, his mom was the clan leader’s concubine. Then, he inherits the Blood Manipulation technique, which sucks because his fellow clan members already hate him and became jealous of him too. Then, his mom, the only one in that clan who actually cared about him, is exiled. Then, he gets put through some batshit crazy training run by the bitter clan leaders. Then–”
“Damn, there’s still more, Iori?”
Utahime chuckles humorlessly. “As I said, he’s had a shit life. He still has to attend family meetings during the school year, he’s gotta send mandatory status updates regarding his technique progress every week, he’s one of the oldest students at Kyoto Jujutsu High so I asked him to be one of the leaders among the students, and on top of that, he seems to get beat up the most during missions and training. Like, I’ve never seen a kid so susceptible to injury. And he has to deal with Todo.”
“Who?”
“The only student of the special grade, Yuki Tsukumo. He’s…eccentric.”
“I remember now,” says Shoko. “He’s the strong-as-hell one who Megumi fought before the exchange event.”
Iori visibly cringes over the video call. “Sorry about that.”
“Eh. I need to practice my technique every once in a while.”
“I think the thing that confuses me the most about him is how much he cares about his classmates.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean, here’s this kid with a shitload of trauma, right? He could easily become one of our enemies, turn to the side where they kill humans and not curses. He has enough reason since jujutsu society hasn’t really done him any favors. But he doesn’t. He leads his team. He supports them at school, makes sure they’re okay after missions.”
“Standard good-person stuff there, Iori.”
“Yeah. I’ll tell you something else; no one at Kyoto really likes Todo that much.”
“How is this related to the Kamo kid?”
“During the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, I sent my students to help with the situation in Kyoto. I think, at first, there were five of them. Todo showed up late, just as a special-grade curse appeared. The original five were about to be, well, a bit dead, but then Todo shows up to exorcise it. I was told that Noritoshi was the only one who warned Todo to be careful. I think he was the only one to actually talk to Todo. A team needs communication, right? Noritoshi was the only one to exercise any concern for him. I think that was a testament to how much Noritoshi cares for his team. I just feel bad for him because, despite his good soul, he’s got to deal with all this shit.”
“That’s the life of a jujutsu sorcerer, Iori.”
“You’re welcome to stay if you like,” Shoko tells Noritoshi.
“Are you sure?”
“In situations like these, I usually only allow essential personnel to be in here–”
She looks right into Noritoshi’s eyes.
“ –but I’ll let you stay because he’s been your peer for three years and I understand that when you’re jujutsu sorcerers, you become each other’s family. And you’re friends too, right? Good enough for me.”
Noritoshi looks unsure of how to respond.
“...Friends. Yes. Thank you?”
“Are you…not friends?”
“I suppose acquaintances would be a more apt label?” says Noritoshi.
Shoko lets a huff out at that. It’s almost too bad that her mask conceals her amused smirk.
~
By the time Yuki leaves the hospital room, Todo’s arm has been bandaged and the bleeding from his wrist has stopped. His body already feels less achy, most likely due to the doctor’s reverse-cursed technique. Even better, Todo has regained some of his ability to sense cursed energy.
The present issue is, of course, his inability to force himself out of his coma.
Todo is subjected to laying down in a vegetative state while everyone around him does their part to stop Kenjaku.
It’s awful.
It’s not like Todo wants to fight to prove himself. No, certainly not. He proved himself when he achieved his grade-1 status. Todo feels no need to prove he is one of the best, because, well, he is one of the best. Todo is not insecure about his IQ, because that’s extremely high, and he works out to the point where he could probably bench press all of the Kyoto students.
Todo wants to fight because, one, fighting is fun and he likes it. He hates everyday life because even as a jujutsu sorcerer, life occasionally gets boring. If there’s one thing Todo can’t stand, it’s boredom.
Secondly, Todo wants to help and fight because he likes doing his part for his community. Ever since he was taken in by Yuki, Todo has had a family and even though they may not like him all the time, Todo likes being a part of their team.
So. The coma.
It’s not a curse he can beat the shit out of, unfortunately. Todo doesn’t know if the reverse-cursed technique works on brain injuries, so he’ll just have to wait this out.
Oh.
There’s someone else here. Todo picks up on their cursed energy as soon as they step foot in the room.
Todo has felt this energy before. It powerfully rushes and flows beneath the user’s skin and Todo knows this energy well from sensing it on countless missions and practically every day of his high school life leading up to this moment.
The energy grows stronger and stronger until the person is right next to Todo, washing over his senses.
If Todo had to describe it, he’d say it faintly smells like coffee beans and beeswax.
“Noritoshi,” he wants to say.
He can’t.
~
Noritoshi stays by Todo’s side for eighteen hours before Shoko shoves him out of the room and into the locker room next to the hospital room.
“Listen, Noritoshi. I’m already bending the rules to let you stay in that room, so the least you could do is shower so you’re not stinking up the place,” Shoko tells him, handing him a towel.
Noritoshi lifts up his arm and feels very self-conscious as he sniffs his armpit.
“Do I smell bad?” he asks hesitantly.
Shoko rolls her eyes.
“To be completely honest, you came here right after you fought Suguru-Kenjaku and most people don’t smell too fresh after fighting a big bad guy. Additionally, I’ve seen this before. Trust me when I tell you that you’re going to need breaks from it.”
“Breaks from what?”
Shoko pulls her mask down and Noritoshi can see the empathetic look that travels from her small smile to the corners of her eyes. Shoko gestures to the closed door of the hospital room beside them.
“This. The waiting. The praying and the late-night vigils and candles lit on the nightstands. The sleepless nights. Bloodshot eyes. The dark circles beneath your eyes that won’t fade until two weeks after the patient is discharged. The caffeine addiction. The desperation. The anxiety. The small suitcase that holds your essentials because you don’t want to waste any time going home to change and brush your teeth.”
“That sounds intense.” Though Noritoshi supposes that he’s faced more daunting tasks.
Shoko nods. “You know,” she says quietly, “they say that injuries are harder for not the wounded, but the people around them.”
“They also say,” she adds right before Noritoshi closes the door to the locker room, “hospitalizations can either make or break relationships.”
This confuses Noritoshi. What is the doctor implying? “How do you mean?”
“Some people can’t handle the pressure of waiting. Some can. It’s easier to understand once you’re in the thick of it.”
She closes the door and Noritoshi is left in the locker room, alone with the sound of running water and his thoughts.
~
Noritoshi leaves the room for eight minutes and thirteen seconds. Todo knows because, despite not having a watch nor his vision, he has kept count of the seconds since Noritoshi’s cursed energy left and reentered the room.
Dr. Shoko left with him and returned after one minute and forty-seven seconds. Her cursed energy smells like cigarette smoke, but Todo finds that it’s not entirely unpleasant.
Noritoshi is at his side again. Coffee and beeswax. Familiar and…comforting?
This is new. This thought.
It’s a good thing Todo has quite a while to figure out what it means.
~
Noritoshi has to promise Momo that he’ll buy Momo a month-long stash of her premium-top-notch-number-one brand hair spray before she agrees to go back to the Kyoto school to pick up a change of clothes and toiletries for him.
“You know I’m not doing this for the hair spray, right?” Momo says as she mounts her broom.
Noritoshi shakes his head. To be honest, he does not understand women in the slightest.
“It’s because he’s my classmate, and though I may not show it, Todo is my friend,” Momo admits.
“I see.”
She hesitates before gripping the broomstick.
“Are you doing this because you feel morally obligated to? Or because he’s your friend and you care about him?”
“I–I’m not..sure.”
“Promise me you’ll think about it, okay? I want an answer when I get back, Noritoshi,” Momo demands. Noritoshi doesn’t think he’s in any position to defy her orders.
Momo lifts off the ground and gives Noritoshi one hard look before she zooms away.
~
Was that Momo Nishimiya?
~
“The second one,” Noritoshi tells Momo when she hands him a small black suitcase.
Momo nods, looking smug as if she knew his answer since the moment Noritoshi sped off the battlefield in the direction of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
~
It turns out that it doesn’t take long for Todo to figure out his thoughts and sentiments towards Noritoshi.
On the fifth day in his coma, Todo comes to the electrifying, stomach-dropping, and heart-stopping realization that he might be, no, he is, in love with Noritoshi Kamo.
~
Noritoshi brings bagels into the hospital room on Day Six.
Shoko takes a sweet potato-flavored bagel.
Noritoshi springs for a plain bagel with chocolate-flavored cream cheese. A strange flavor that he is surprisingly fond of.
He spreads light cream cheese on of the bagels and leaves it on Todo’s nightstand.
~
Day Six. Todo smells coffee beans and beeswax and something a bit more savory.
An onion bagel with light cream cheese.
His favorite.
~
Shoko provides instant ramen for lunch on Day Seven.
The salty broth reminds Noritoshi of the silent tears he shed two nights before when he had the devastating thought that not everyone makes it out of their coma.
~
On the night of Day Five, Todo’s ears pick up on the faint, gasping sound of Noritoshi crying.
Todo wants to take Noritoshi’s calloused hands in his and tell him that he’s going to try his best to wake up as soon as he can.
He can’t.
~
Day Eight. Shoko gives Noritoshi a cup of warm, decaffeinated tea that’s laced with a dissolved sleeping pill and lays him down on the bed next to Todo’s.
Noritoshi wakes up four hours later. His eyes lose a touch of their redness and the dark circles beneath his eyes are two shades lighter.
He can’t blame Shoko for drugging him. When Noritoshi thanks her, she pats his shoulder and her eyes carry the weight of someone who has seen this happen too many times before.
~
Why does Noritoshi smell like coffee beans and beeswax?
Ok, Todo understands the coffee beans. Noritoshi is addicted to coffee. He especially likes those little cups filled with mocha and the coffee with fancy names.
But the beeswax? This takes Todo two minutes and five seconds to figure out.
Noritoshi is an archer. He uses a bow and arrows and it takes him three seconds, at most, to fire at his target and hit it spot-on without aid from Blood Manipulation.
Bows require attention and upkeep; the wood needs to be splinter-free, cracks need to be mended, and bowstrings need to be lubricated and waxed.
Beeswax is a great natural substance to use on your bowstring.
~
Noritoshi has to leave on Day Ten for a mandatory trip back to the Kamo estate.
Shoko tells him to watch out for colony boundaries as he reluctantly trudges out the door of the hospital room.
~
Day Eleven. Noritoshi comes back and his cursed energy is spiked. He seems angry and agitated.
Todo knows something must have happened with the Kamo clan.
~
“They kicked me out,” Noritoshi announces when he enters the hospital room.
Shoko finishes changing Todo’s bandages and looks up. “Who?”
“The elders of the Kamo clan. Oh, also, Suguru-Kenjaku has taken over as head of the clan. I may never have to go back!”
Shoko has never heard Noritoshi raise his voice before. He looks crazed and happy and betrayed all at once. The kid’s right eye twitches twice.
Shoko reaches for her phone and sends a text. Noritoshi has taken his seat beside Todo and is clutching Todo’s hand like a lifeline.
Utahime Iori arrives sixteen minutes later and makes a beeline for Noritoshi.
She puts a hand on his shoulder and notes how aggressively he’s shaking.
“Noritoshi,” Iori says, “It’s Utahime.”
He doesn’t respond.
“I need you to look at me, Noritoshi.”
The boy shakes his head.
“C’mon, kid.” She gently takes him by both shoulders and turns him around.
Noritoshi’s eyes are bloodshot and puffy. Tear tracks travel down his cheeks and droplets gather on his chin and jaw.
“Sensei,” Noritoshi greets. He sounds choked like there is a golf-ball-sized lump in his throat.
It’s heartbreaking, how destroyed the boy looks. The clan he was tied to, the clan that had mistreated him for years had cut him off without a second thought and now, he was officially an outcast. Utahime runs a hand through his wild hair and begins untangling the knots with her fingers. Shoko hands her a brush and Utahime unties Noritoshi’s bangs. She feels like marching down to the Kamo estate and ripping Kenjaku’s head off herself.
“Wait,” says Noritoshi.
“Yes?”
“Can you help me cut my hair?” he asks hoarsely.
~
Noritoshi has to leave again under the cover of night on Day Eleven.
~
The cool breeze hits Noritoshi’s neck and he shivers. He’s not exactly used to his new style yet, but Utahime had told him that it might be good to wear lighter clothing for a change.
“You’re a smaller target to hit in form-fitting clothing. The old outfit that the Kamo elders gave you made you a larger and slower target. Now, you can fight and move around without all that extra fabric restricting you,” she had told him as she ushered him out of the hospital wing.
“Good luck, Noritoshi,” Utahime says.
Shoko waves goodbye and says, “I’ll save your seat for you, kid.”
~
Day Twelve is quiet and boring.
Todo misses Noritoshi .
~
On Day Thirteen, the cadence of Todo’s heart monitor changes once, twice, three times and Shoko Ieiri rushes to his bedside to confirm his vitals.
Once sure of her assumption, she grabs her phone and dials the number of Yuki Tsukumo.
“ He’s waking up.”
~
Noritoshi Kamo and Maki Zenin fight Naoya, the cursed womb, on Day Thirteen.
After the conclusion of the fight, Noritoshi Kamo is rushed to Tokyo Jujutsu High in dire need of medical attention.
~
Todo opens his eyes to the slam! of the hospital room’s door. Though his vision is blurry, he sees the doctor rush over to carry in a body.
Todo doesn’t need twenty-twenty vision to tell who the body belongs to.
Coffee and beeswax.
~
Noritoshi is finally stabilized on the twenty-second hour of Day Thirteen.
Todo is fully awake and aware on the twenty-third hour.
~
Day Fourteen. Shoko pushes their beds together.
“You know, this isn’t what I meant when I told you I was keeping your seat warm,” Shoko tells Noritoshi with a grunt as she pushes his bed against Todo’s.
“Sorry, Doc,” he sheepishly says.
“Hell, don’t apologize to me now, kid. Do that once you’re fully healed.” She turns to look at Todo. “You too, Muscles. You don’t know how many times I had to drag this one–” Shoko gestures to Noritoshi “–away from your bed to shower and shit.”
“Adorable,” Maki comments from her bed across the room. It would take full deafness and blindness to miss the sarcasm in her voice.
~
“Noritoshi,” Todo says.
“Yes?”
“What’s your type?”