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Nanami has been planning this trip for months and this damned mission couldn’t have happened at the worst time.
“You sure you’ll be back soon?” You sat on the bed with a worried look on your face, large suitcases half-packed on the floor.
Kento approached you and placed a soft, delicate kiss on your lips.
“I promise. Shibuya is not far from our place. As soon as I finish the mission, I’ll be back home and tomorrow, we fly to Malaysia”.
You smiled weakly, not really believing in his words. It was like that before every mission that he took: you were sick worried and he always came back home with some injury. You vividly remembered that one time Kento almost fainted in the hall, pressing hand to his chest, trying to hide a huge stain of blood on his perfectly ironed jacket. You nearly lost it that time and immediately called Satoru and Shoko for help. Kento was watching you running around frantically, a smile full of regret on his pale face, and an ocean of love in his brown eyes.
“My love, I promise”, he sat near you on the bed, pulling you in his arms. “I will be back at night. You won’t even notice me missing”.
“I always do”, you echoed, and his heart clenched. Of course you did.
“I love you”, he gave you one last kiss and stood up, picking up his blunt sword and putting on a jacket.
“Love you more”, you whispered, tears creeping to the corners of your eyes.
You never cried in front of him. But he damn well knew you would once he leaves home.
*** ***
A phone call thundered in the silence of the bedroom and you jerked up in bed, looking around groggily. You didn’t even notice how you fell asleep: exhaustion and stress finally took you down. Now, your phone was buzzing non-stop in a disturbing manner, the usual sound seeming strangely wrong.
With your hands shaking, you took the phone, seeing the “Satoru” name on the screen. “The hell…”
“Hi? Toru?”
“Goodness, you picked up! Listen, love”, Gojo was speaking in an unusually anxious manner. “Can you come to Jujutsu Tech now? To Shoko’s office?”
“What’s with Ken?!” Your fingers became icy cold and you felt your heart skipping a beat.
Gojo went silent for a moment and sighed, his tone serius and deep.
“Just…please just go there. And please be there for him. Please. I will join you as soon as I’m done here”.
He hang up abruptly, leaving you alone with the terror that started creeping in your body. You didn’t remember how you got dressed or how you caught a taxi and you didn’t remember the taxi driver asking what’s wrong. With shaky hands, you tried reaching Kento again and again but he never answered. Yuji didn’t pick up too and neither did Yuji.
“What the hell is happening in Shibuya?!” you screamed helplessly, and the driver turned but you didn’t give a damn. Nothing mattered right now. Only Kento did.
The taxi stopped in front of the gates and you rushed to Shoko’s office, involuntarily noticing how quiet the usually loud building is. It’s as if everyone just…disappeared.
“Disappeared in Shibuya”, the thought appeared out of nowhere and you shivered.
Shoko’s office greeted you with its usual bright lights, a bit blinding after dim hallways of the college. Shoko was standing with her back to the door, and by her sharp anxious movements you figured she was working on a complex case.
A complex case which happened to be…
“Ken?!”
Shoko flinched but didn’t move, as if trying to fence Nanami from your sight. At the same time, you heard him groaning:
“No baby, please… Go away…”
“The hell?!”
Before you managed to approach them, Shoko turned rapidly, still fencing Kento from your sight.
“Listen, you gotta know… He… doesn’t look exactly the same, okay?” She said with almost a challenge in her voice. “Just stay cool. If needed, I have a sedative right here”.
You didn’t understand the hell she was trying to say. She was talking about Nanami Kento, your one and only husband, the person whom you loved the most in the world. Why would you need a sedative?
“Move”, you shot an icy glare at her and Shoko hesitantly stepped away.
“I warned ya”.
You were about to ask what was that she warned you about and then… you saw it.
Half of Kento’s body was burnt to almost a crisp, a hole in the place of his left eye and horrible burns and scars all over the body. His left hand was hanging limp, his remaining eye studying your face closely, tears filling it and blurring his vision.
“I’m so sorry”, he croaked. “I’m so sorry. You can go now. It’s okay. I… I will file for divorce as soon as I recover a bit. I’m sorry I didn’t keep my promise. You can go on a trip… alone…I…”
His voice broke with tears and in a heartbeat, you were there, sitting on the bed and hugging him, your face buried in his chest. He lifted his hand bumpily, placing it on your hair, his chest trembling with suppressed tears.
“Say something”, he begged. “Anything”.
“I love you so much, Ken”, you whispered, your tears burning hot against his pained skin. “And stop saying all that idiotic nonsense. I love you. I love you more than ever”.
He tried to hug you with his right hand, his lips curved as he was fighting back all the pain and tears that were suffocating him.
“Malaysia is so happening”, you whispered quickly, as if you were scared that if you stopped talking for a moment, he’d slip back in the abyss of terror in his head. “We’ll take a suitcase full of your damn books. We will walk on the beach every day. We will rent a house on a secluded beach. Kuantan, right? All this is happening, Ken. I will never leave you”.
He just hugged you tighter, tears streaming down his face.
“Maybe we’ll take Yuji with us”.
You nodded, your own tears burning your cheeks.
“And Ino, too. Whatever you want, Ken. But I will never let you get away from me”.
And for the first time in his twenty seven years, Nanami Kento realized how tears of happiness felt, dissolving the horrors of Shibuya and the past years of watching his friends sacrifice themselves for the sake of others.
“I love you”, he said simply, and back then, the whole world wouldn’t fit in these three words that he intended to tell you for the rest of his life.