Chapter Text
A dark sky swirled above Maki as she swatted at a buzzing cursed spirit with her sword. Barely a grade three, probably, hardly worth bringing the Split-Soul Katana with her for, but hopefully Yuji and Panda had found something worthwhile for her up ahead.
It just sucked that she had to clean up the lower grade spirits on this baseball diamond before she could meet up with them.
“Well, that’s the last one. Jeez, talk about a lame Friday night.” She sighed, looking down at the blade, her ponytail already messy. She adjusted her weapon to watch the moonlight shift in its reflection. “Good thing I’ve got plans later, right?”
Oh, Netflix and pizza are your wild weekend plans? Idiot. She imagined a familiar snide tone mocking her.
“Yeah, well, that isn’t all.” She procured a ring box from her coffee-colored leather jacket’s pocket and held it up with a smirk, showing it to the sword. “I just picked this up on my way here. I’m proposing tomorrow.”
Ugh, I forgot you and that bitch are still together.
“Over six years.” She frowned, remembering that day, the weird blend of emotions it stirred in her. A cold, rainy winter morning, Nobara waking up from her coma, their confessions, the heated kiss, the tears she spilled in private upon returning to her dorm room when she realized she had no one to share it with. “It feels like yesterday.”
Well, congratulations, I guess. You two morons are made for each other.
The one-sided conversation was interrupted by a loud crack, dust erupting over the hillside. She grinned, tucking the jewelry box back into the pocket and buttoning it shut.
“Okay Mai, enough talk. Let’s go to work.”
Maki raced up the hill, stopping to take a deep breath. She then began her confident stride to the top of the mound, looking down on the scene. Yuji and Panda, the latter now in gorilla mode, were engaged in a battle of fists against an oversized mass of cursed energy, presenting itself to her as though she were wearing infrared goggles. A stack of steel pipes, presumably being prepared for construction, sat to the right of the battle, and the material was being shredded and flung about by their opponent.
“Hey guys,” She interrupted from her position on the hill. “Leave some fun for me.”
“Oho, you had to bring a friend to help?” The humanoid creature snarled his mangled lips into an ugly smirk. “Maki Zenin, eh? The clan killer?”
“Ah, so you’ve heard of me.” Maki deadpanned back with a cocky smirk, one hand casually swinging her blade, the other on the hip of her tight black jeans. “Y’know, the cool thing about wiping out an entire clan is that everyone remembers your name. I hate introductions.”
“A special grade sorcerer hating introductions? That’s a first. Rather tragic the line will end with you tonight.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that one before, too.” Maki was not one for theatrics, but she was reveling in the dramatic entrance. “Yuji, you said this guy was a special grade? He sure does a lot of talking-”
“Maki-san, look out!”
Maki leaned back as a jagged piece of steel wrapped in cursed energy barrelled past her face. “Hey, my girlfriend just cut my bangs! Don’t make me go back to her with it all fucked up!”
“I can’t believe my luck,” the cursed spirit cackled, “two special grades have come to kill me. I must be the talk of the town!”
“Hey, I feel left out!” Panda grumbled, dodging construction material. “I’m still pretty tough, you know! It’s very rude to ignore me just because I’m a grade one!”
Yuji slammed his fist into the side of the creature, twisting around to land a roundhouse kick just after. “You’re hurting my friend’s feelings !”
Maki sped towards the beast, bringing her leg up for a kick and slamming the heel of her boot down, only to be dodged. Her foot was caught in the spirit’s grip, and she felt herself being tossed away like a toy.
“Gah, Yuji, where do you find these things?!” She growled as she hit the dirt beneath them. She was grateful, at least, for the fact that she no longer wore glasses- they would have been lost already.
“This guy has been fucking up the local high school,” Panda shouted back, leaping into the air and landing a hit, “ever since kids went back to school after lockdown, big guys like these have been popping up.”
Maki allowed Panda to distract the spirit briefly as she effortlessly kicked herself onto her feet. She stormed at the mass of energy, slicing across it with her blade, knowing she landed a hit.
She turned her head, spinning her weapon, making eye contact with Yuji as they stood in their fighting stances. She felt the flood of confidence she had grown so comfortable in, a wild grin across her face.
“Yuji, go for-” Maki was swiftly interrupted by a fierce sensation cutting through her abdomen. Blood erupted from her mouth, and she found herself crumpling to her knees.
“Maki-san!”
She looked down at her stomach, and a long, jagged edge of steel had cut straight through her.
Worthless, a torturous voice echoed in her mind, one that wasn't her own. You fucking worthless failure.
“Ah, hang on, intermission!” Yuji announced, racing towards his fallen ally and scooping her up carefully.
“I’ve got him!” Panda roared, fists barrelling into the spirit.
“Yuji, drop me!” She weakly pleaded. “I’m fine, give me five minutes, I can rip this thing out and get back to work!”
“Nitta-san is over the edge of the hill.” Yuji glared down at her, his pace only picking up. “Panda and I can finish this guy off, just let her get you to Shoko.”
“Gah-” she tried to protest, but could only cough up spats of blood. “I’ll be back in five minutes, just-”
“Yuji, Maki, are you-” Nitta paused when she saw Maki’s blooded body, and immediately opened the back door. “Agh, I hope Shoko’s sober!”
First, Maki was annoyed. Sitting in the stupid infirmary room she constantly ended up in, stained jacket and tattered t-shirt on the floor, chest concealed only by her sports bra, but this time she didn’t have a kill to show for it. Those harsh, flickering lights above her were making her more delirious than she already was. Nitta had left to return the Split-Soul to the armory, so Maki was alone, save for Shoko, who was stretching gloves over her fingers. Sick, angry, alone.
But when Nobara rushed in, makeup slightly smudged and wearing Maki’s oversized joggers, she felt a wave of calm rush over her, and a smile spread across her face.
“Hey babe.”
“Jesus, Maki, don’t flirt with me when you have a pole sticking through you.” Nobara grabbed her bloodied fist and sat down beside her, casting a gaze reserved for idiots she loved who got themselves hurt- a blend of anger, anxiety, and gratitude exclusive to the grade one sorcerer.
Maki realized she was wearing a hoodie that had once belonged to her, now refurbished as a crop top. Seeing her girlfriend’s exposed stomach healed something deep in her soul.
“She’ll be fine.” Shoko shrugged from the other side of the bed. “You’re lucky Maki has Heavenly Restriction, she’ll be out of here much faster than anyone else would be.”
“She’s lucky I’m not a domestic abuser.” Nobara rubbed her left eye with her other hand. It was a little red, and Maki realized she had been crying. Guilt swam through the parts of her stomach that were still intact. “God, Maki, can you stop being a reckless idiot when you fight? I like having you come home in one piece.”
Maki looked to Shoko for some kind of support, but the doctor was concentrating on using her reverse cursed technique to extract the steel from her. She winced in pain.
“Nobara’s right, Maki. You are strong, but you’ve also just been lucky.” The doctor pursed her lips.
Lucky , huh? Was she lucky when she was thrown against walls and beaten into the ground as a child? Was she lucky when Suguru Geto left her for dead? Lucky when she went up in flames and lost any sense of joy as her sister, the one she loved the most, was slaughtered in front of her-
“Yeah, just my stomach. I don’t need that.” Maki replied sarcastically, because if she vocalized any of those thoughts, the pain would only intensify.
“Well, it isn’t your heart.”
“I’m fine. Shoko, you’re supposed to make me feel better, not worse.”
Shoko began to pull the foreign object from her stomach, and as her abdomen twisted, blood involuntarily spilled from her mouth once again, cascading over her chin. Nobara cringed and raised her hands to her face, shielding herself as she looked away.
“Ew. I am not kissing you for the next week.”
As she finished her sentence, a familiar face rounded the corner, black hair messy as usual, one hand tucked into the pocket of his black slacks, another on a mug.
“Ugh, look at your idiot cousin.” Nobara gestured to Maki, who was attempting to wipe her mouth. “Can you, like, order her to stop being a jackass?”
“I don’t know how much power clan leader holds these days.” Megumi replied sarcastically from the doorway, sipping his coffee. “I was gonna bring one of my more idiotic students down here, though. Scare him straight or whatever. Show him what happens when you don’t think before you fight.”
“Gah. I think plenty. More than you.” Maki argued weakly as the intrusion finally came free, and Shoko quickly got to work repairing her stomach.
“You’re gonna need staples, too.” The sound of rapid footsteps from the hallway made Shoko purse her lips. “Jesus. More injuries? I’m really going to need a drink after this.”
Fortunately, however, it was simply Yuji and Panda, a bit bruised but otherwise unharmed.
“Maki-san, are you okay?!” Yuji gasped in shock, t-shirt in tatters, eyes gazing at her bloodied body.
“God, everyone leave me alone!”
“Oh, good, you’re okay.” Yuji sighed in relief, then turned to Megumi, wrapping his arms around his waist and holding him close. “Hi babe! The mission went well. We finished him off.”
Megumi planted a gentle kiss on his boyfriend’s neck. “I knew you’d do great.”
Maki groaned- at the sight or the pain, she wasn’t sure.
Shoko quickly glanced at her jacket pocket as it buzzed, knowing only one person could text her this late. “Nobara, can you text Utahime really quick and tell her why I’m still at the infirmary?”
“Man, everyone has someone caring about them except for me.” Panda grumbled. “Whatever. I’m going home to play Call of Duty with Toge. At least he doesn’t pick his boyfriend over his friends.”
Nobara looked up from her phone, both her real and glass eyes burning holes into his fabric. “My girlfriend was about to die you stupid stuffed toy!”
“No I wasn’t-” Maki’s face twisted in agony as Shoko continued treating the injury.
“Whatever. Bye.” Panda waved as he left the infirmary. “I’m glad you’re okay, Maki.”
Nobara pinched the bridge of her nose and squinted her eyes. “God, I love you, Maki. But I can’t keep doing this.”
“D-...doing what?”
Nobara went quiet, and the room was filled with actual silence, a hard contrast from the craziness that had recently swirled around the small space.
“Uh, should we leave?” Yuji asked, still pressed against an unfazed Megumi, whose white button up was now stained with blood.
“You shouldn’t be here in the first place.” Shoko deadpanned, eyes still locked on her patient’s wound. “Nobara can stay. You two go home. Maki will be okay.”
“Bye, Maki. Feel better soon.” Yuji fluttered his wrist at her before grabbing his boyfriend’s hand and guiding him past the door. “What’s for dinner?”
“You think I had time to make dinner?”
The silence resumed as Shoko made quick work of the gaping hole in Maki’s abdomen. She wasn’t worried- you didn’t have the room for worry when you treated sorcerers, of course, they either lived or died- and Maki Zenin had proven multiple times over the course of their seven year relationship that she was very bad at dying. The jujutsu world was fortunate she was an ally, as Hell hath no fury like a stubborn sorcerer wronged.
“I can’t keep ending up at your hospital bed like this, Maki.” Nobara finally answered quietly, anxiously playing with the ring in her nostril, eyes failing to meet her partner’s.
“Babe.” Maki smiled weakly. “It’s kind of usual in our line of work.”
“I’m not saying you can’t fight,” Nobara answered sternly. “I’m saying you need to stop treating fights like you have nothing to lose.”
“I-”
“Y’know, I cut the crazy shit out when I committed to you.” Her eyes moved to the old scars on her wrist. “When you…when you act like an idiot, and you get distracted in front of cursed spirits just because you’re strong and cocky…”
Maki pursed her lips. She should have known Yuji would give her a play-by-play over the phone.
“...It makes me wonder if you’re thinking of me, at home, making your dinner and waiting to start our show.”
“I…” Maki started again, eyes finally locked with Nobara’s, wanting to reach out and touch her cheek, run her thumb over the long, faded scar that overwhelmed the right side of her face, yet did nothing to detract from her beauty. “I always am, Nobara.”
“Are you? Because it doesn’t feel like it right now.”
Maki wasn’t sure what hurt worse- the accusation, or the final hot staple piercing against her stomach.
“Not to interrupt, but you’re good now, Maki.” Shoko declared as she dressed the wound, Maki squirming under her, feeling infantilized. “You need to stay overnight, though. I…know that’s probably not what you wanted to hear, Nobara. Sorry about your show.”
Nobara tried to laugh, but it came out strangled, like it was masking a sob. “It’s okay, Shoko. Thank you for fixing this asshole up again.”
“Ah, I didn’t go that far.”
They both managed to chuckle at this, and Shoko produced a tiny, proud smirk.
“I’m going to be around tonight. But I will be drunk.” She warned. “Nobara, you need to let her rest.”
“I’ll leave soon, I promise.”
“Sure.” Shoko didn’t believe her, but left anyway, turning off the overhead lights as she did.
Nobara looked back down to her girlfriend. “As I was saying. It…doesn’t feel like you’re thinking about coming back home every time you leave.”
“I always am.” Maki continued, her chest swelling. She felt combative, defensive, but she settled her nerves with a small breath. “It’s what I’m fighting for everytime. Maybe I’m a headstrong idiot, but I’m a headstrong idiot who just wants to set the world on fire for the woman I’ve loved for six years.”
Nobara tried to hide her reaction, biting her lower lip and looking away. “Don’t say that.”
“It’s the truth.” Maki swallowed, trying to choose her words carefully instead of letting them spill out in desperation. “I don’t have much left, the cursed world took fucking everything from me and…I guess I want to burn it all down sometimes, and take from it what it took from me.”
She didn’t intend the allegory, and she wasn’t sure if what she was saying even made any sense anymore, her head was spinning from the injury, and the treatment, and her girlfriend’s sorrow. The latter hurt the most, it crushed her soul and made her wish she would pass out already.
“I don’t want you to burn anymore.”
Ha. She had never stopped burning.
“Nobara…” Maki sighed, trying to come up with something to say.
“I’m tired, Maki.” Nobara’s hands massaged her girlfriend’s. “I love you more than anything, you know that, right? You’re my partner. And…I don’t want to wonder if you’ll make it home to me anymore.”
“Everything I do is so I can come home to you.” She said it so quickly because she didn't need to disguise it. It was the truth.
“Gah…” Nobara allowed a tear to slip from her eye, gripping harder. “Maki, I’m a sorcerer too…”
“I don’t care. I won’t let the world take from you what it took from me.”
Nobara knew what she meant, even if she didn’t say it. No, she didn’t have a sister to lose, she didn’t have burn scars covering half of her body, she didn’t have to compete for respect since she left the womb. She had managed to maintain a faint sense of security, one that Maki had been born into this world without.
“Will you…just…hold back a little?” Nobara pleaded. “ Please. I can’t take this anymore.”
“I’ll…I’ll be more careful. I have to make it home to you for the rest of my life, and I want it to be a long one.”
“Me too.” She sighed. “Look…I’m a sorcerer too. I’ll never ask you to leave this world for me…this is what we know. I just…need to know you’re fighting for me too.”
“Always, Nobara.”
She smiled. “That’s all I can ask.”
Maki’s stomach fluttered as they stared at each other in silence, Nobara still caressing the calloused skin of her palms. This was horrible timing, but God, having your stomach torn apart and put back together would affect anyone’s sense of judgment, especially when the most beautiful woman in the world was gazing down at you, big orange eyes illuminated by the low electronic lights that remained on, her stare dissipating the tormenting thoughts that usually flooded Maki’s head following failure.
She swallowed. “Nobara, uh. Can you get my jacket from the floor?”
“I can get you a blanket-”
“No. I need the jacket.”
“Jesus, okay, weirdo. I’ll get your nasty jacket.” She moved to snatch it from the floor, but immediately felt the boxy outline in the pocket. Her eyebrows shot up in realization. “Uh-”
“Gah, let me take it out, jerk.” Maki managed through bloodied teeth. She attempted to raise an arm, somehow managing to dig into the coat. Nobara shook her head in disbelief, grinning like an idiot.
“I swear to God, if you-”
“Let me do this,” Maki interrupted. She found the box, and attempted to separate herself from the bed, Nobara giggling as she dropped the garment and helped her to one knee.
“You asshole.” Nobara’s soft laughs turned into sobs. “I don’t even look cute right now, how could you do this to me?”
“Nobara, you couldn’t look more beautiful if you tried.”
“M-Maki…” She sputtered between sobs.
Maki smiled, opening the box to reveal the ring she had carefully managed to carry through the battle. “Will you m-”
“Yes.” Nobara fell into her arms, burying her head into her shoulder, sniffling against the scarred skin. “You fucking reckless psychopath, yes.”
They met for a deep kiss, Maki’s mouth still filled with the metallic taste of her own blood, Nobara seemingly accepting this, despite chiding her earlier. Their hands clung to each other’s faces as though they were touching for the first time- and they both realized that perhaps, in a sense, they were- the rush of a death narrowly avoided, a lifetime together more apparent than ever.
Maki pulled away. “You didn’t let me finish.”
“Sorry, go ahead.”
“Will you marry me?”
“Hmm…No. I changed my mind. You taste disgusting.”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
“Don’t be gross.” Nobara whispered into her lips. “This is supposed to be a beautiful moment."
They laughed as they kissed, Maki pulling back only to slide the ring onto her fiance’s finger, careful, gentle, as though she might break the piece of jewelry, or the woman, or both.
“Goddamn, that’s a big diamond.” Nobara gasped.
“Ah, what’s the point of making special grade money if you can’t spoil your special girl?”
“You are so fucking corny.” Nobara laughed, allowing more tears to spill down her cheek, guiding her partner back onto the bed, straddling her legs, their noses pressed together. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Her hands fell to her lover's chest. “I’d totally rearrange your guts right now if Shoko hadn’t just spent so much time putting them back together.”
“Oh, and I’m the gross one?” Maki snarked back, stained teeth bared, uncaring, fingers moving to the back of Nobara’s neck, combing through her hair, the sweet scent of her floral shampoo enveloping them.
Maybe she was lucky, after all.
A few hours later, when Shoko came back, she wasn’t at all surprised to see the two pressed against each other in the bed, passed out, Nobara practically smiling as she slumbered against Maki’s collarbones. Her long legs intertwined around one of Maki’s thighs, manicured nails resting on the faded, winding burns across her chest, ring finger now ornately decorated.
She quietly backed away from the door, shutting it gently, turning away and walking back down the hall with a small smile.
She could wait until the sun came up, at least.