Chapter Text
Mai more or less expected Nobara’s reaction—had even expected her brisk exit. Still, it didn’t make it any less painful when it actually happened.
Shoko entered the room not long after with a short wave. “Welcome back.”
“How long have I been out?” Mai asked, in no mood for pleasantries.
“A few days.” She came up beside her and brandished a stethoscope. “And you bounced back faster than I thought, you’re already sitting up.”
“Mm. Did my classmates bring me here?”
“They did.” She gestured for Mai to sit further forward. “It wasn’t that long ago either before you ask. As soon as your condition was relayed, your sister was on the ball about getting around to a solution.”
Even with her shirt kept on, the diaphragm of the stethoscope chilled her back as Shoko pressed it against her to listen. Without prompting, Mai took deep, even breaths, though still spoke in between each. “Maki’s here?”
“She’s just outside.” She left the offer to have Maki come in unspoken, more than aware that the two weren’t exactly on amicable grounds, as one-sided as it was.
“I don’t know what to say to her,” Mai said simply, still breathing, still fixing her eyes to her lap like her sanity depended on it.
“Or what you’re going to say to Kugisaki?” Shoko surmised.
“Why would I need to talk to her?”
“Well, to give thanks, for starters.” She stored the stethoscope away and laid a hand on Mai’s shoulder, probing with her reverse curse technique for any more injuries or irregularities. “She did save your life.”
Mai scoffed. “If she didn’t wait to hear one, she must not want it.”
But just as she said that, Shoko found something. What an interesting development.
“Really?” Shoko asked, though there was an edge of challenge in her tone that caught Mai’s attention. “Because according to your cursed energy signature, she’s got you under a Binding Vow.”
Mai whipped her head around, eyes wide with alarm and incredulousness. “She what?!”
Shoko didn’t react, instead focusing deeper on the blip she found in Mai’s signature for better confirmation. But sure enough, the enchainment of a Binding Vow was as distinct as a flashing beacon. There was no mistaking this one.
“I wonder if the Vow was what broke your curse,” Shoko mused aloud, not expecting one way or another for Mai to know herself.
“No, the kiss worked too...” Mai mumbled, a stark contrast to her initial outburst as red tinted her cheeks and her fingers rose to touch her bottom lip. Kugisaki kissing her was one thing, but a Binding Vow? What the hell was she playing at?
Her eyes darted about; left, right, and back again, like she was trying to find sense and logic in the threads of the bedding. Up until the moment she woke up, everything had felt like a dream, slow and sluggish like she was wading through a marsh just to get to the next thought. Now awake, all that she’d heard and experienced—the concern of her classmates, the rush to Tokyo, Maki calling her name, Shoko’s calculated assessment of her condition; Nobara’s entry and the smell of roses as warmth blossomed against her cheek—came rushing back to her with perfect clarity.
But what she fixated on the most was what Nobara had said, and in that recollection, Mai found her answer. She fell back on the bed with a groan.
Shoko raised a brow at the display and sat herself on the bed to properly get a look at Mai. The girl was blushing, though the crease between her brow belied any trace of bashfulness. If anything, she looked embarrassed. “So what was it?” Shoko asked gently to keep from sounding too curious. “Love? Hate?”
It was a long time before Mai eventually answered, staring up at the ceiling in a daze as if tired, but she’d never felt so awake. “Some fine line between the two.”
She remembered floating in that dreamless void, accepting that she might be there forever. But then came Kugisaki, of all people, to pull her out of it with her first kiss in exchange for a debt to be collected later. In that void, Mai heard her, and some part of her that wished to go on, though it was small beneath the weight of her own defeatist resignation, had accepted. The kiss worked, thereby the Vow—overkill as it was—went into effect, and likely the reason why Mai recovered so quickly.
She inspected her arms, flexing them and curling her fingers into her palms—feeling better than new, and unable to recall a time someone had gone above and beyond to help her. Well, aside from Maki, but that was when they were little. She swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat at the thought, and was left with no idea of what she was supposed to make of any of this. However, and loathed as she was to admit it, she knew what she needed to do next.
***
When Nobara was little, helping her grandmother make straw dolls was her least favorite part of her training. She hated gathering rice leaves, and hated waiting for them to dry even more. When it finally came time to weave them into the tools that would fuel their shared cursed technique, she and her grandmother would sit together beneath the maple tree outside their house and bind them with twine. Her tiny fingers wouldn’t reach the level of dexterity and expertise until she graduated primary school, her patience for the craft wouldn’t temper until she reached junior high.
Now, as she sat in the middle of her Tokyo Jujutsu Tech dorm room atop a sheet that protects her floors from stray bits of straw—and she hasn’t been able to get Mai’s profound astonishment out of her head in the past hour since it happened—she surrendered to the motion and rhythm embedded into her muscle memory. A pile of a loose straw filled the center of the tarp, while a dozen finished dolls had been set off to the side. But even as the number grew in quantity, she had no intention to stop.
Not even when an unexpected knock came at her door.
“It’s open,” she called out without much thought.
A hesitating pause seeped from the other side. Then the knob turned and in stepped her visitor.
“Nice room. It’s very you.”
Nobara’s hand stopped mid-motion, surprise halting her in an incomplete weave of the doll’s torso. Then she looked up. “Hi?”
“Hi,” said Mai, looking unsure and uncharacteristically timid as she lingered by the door with her hand still on the handle. “You left before I could thank you.”
At the reminder of how she saved Mai from the sleeping curse, Nobara yanked her attention back to the doll, her motions rougher and resembling her childhood clumsiness than they had been a few seconds ago. “You don’t have to,” she said, bringing the twine up to her teeth to tighten the last knot and tossed the finished doll onto the pile with the rest of them.
Mai’s expression shifted into something familiar—comforting even—as she hummed neutrally and closed the door with a definitive click. “Well, too bad, I’m doing it anyway.”
When Nobara gave no response, instead taking another fistful of straw to start on a new doll, Mai exhaled a long, deep breath and pressed a thumb against her temple. “Why are you like this? You wanted this didn’t you?”
Once again, Nobara’s movements stilled, this time in confusion. “Wanted what? I didn’t ask you to come to my room.”
“You—really don’t know what you did?”
“Since when did you become so damn cryptic? Just spit it out already,” Nobara grumbled and roughly wrapped twine around what’s going to be the doll’s head.
Mai scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Unbelievable.” She looked more and more like herself by the second, and at least now Nobara knew how to deal with it. But what she said next threw her for another loop faster than she could process. “You made a Binding Vow with me.”
Her fingers slipped and the doll fell apart in her hands as her head whipped up to meet Mai’s glare. She searched for a crack in her expression, something that’d make this all the joke that it was. However, Mai crossed her arms over her chest, and expression remained unmoved.
And yet, Nobara bursted out laughing anyway. “Good one. Like that would even happen.”
“See, this is why you should stick around and listen to stuff being explained instead of running off!” Mai chastised, running out of patience.
“And miss the chance to hear you talk in that melodious voice of yours? I could never,” Nobara remarked with saccharine sarcasm.
“God I knew this was a bad idea,” Mai berated herself. “But that would just be my luck that I’d get shackled to an idiot like you and be the first sorcerer to incur the wrath of some cosmic karma.”
And Nobara actually blinked at that. “Wait, you’re actually serious. You’re really under a Binding Vow.”
“I literally have nothing to gain by lying to you, Kugisaki,” Mai deadpanned.
“But I didn’t...” She thought back, furiously combing through her memory for what she did, what she said.
Mai beat her to it, reciting word for word. “‘This isn’t how a girl imagines her first kiss. So if this works, you owe me big time.’ Sound familiar?”
Nobara’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh. You heard me.”
Mai nodded, murmuring, “I heard you.” Then she sighed and spread her arms out in a show of acquiescence, “And apparently I accepted, so whatever you want in exchange for saving me, let’s get it over with.”
The hand over her mouth fell away as Nobara made no effort to stifle her growing grin. This started as something weird, but now? Oh, this was just too good an opportunity to pass up. “Whatever I want?”
Mai sneered. “If you make me do something stupid, then I’ll let karma take me now.”
***
Well. To Nobara’s credit, it wasn’t stupid per se. But Mai felt ridiculous regardless.
“Normally I have Itadori carry my bags for me, but this is even better I think,” Nobara said over her shoulder where Mai trailed behind a step carrying several bags hooked on nearly every square inch of her arms, one on each shoulder, and even a smaller one between her teeth.
Mai kept her response to herself. Of all the things she could be doing to atone for a Binding Vow, becoming Nobara Kugisaki’s pack mule wasn’t... the worst. But it wasn’t the best either.
“How much longer are you going to make me do this?” she asked around the bag handle. “Pretty sure you bought out the entire street at this point.”
“Where’s the fun in having a stipend if not to spend it?” Nobara challenged.
Sure Mai liked to shop as much as the next person, but even she knew where to draw the line. Come to think of it, “How do you even have the closet space for all this anyway?”
Nobara swiveled on her heel and continued to walk backwards as she held a finger to lips. “A girl never tells.”
She rolled her eyes.
When Nobara turned back around, she glanced up at the sky, noting that it was indeed beginning to grow late, just shy of sunset. “I guess we can start heading back. But first I want to try out this new café that just opened.”
Almost done then, Mai consoled herself and summoned the remains of her strength to see her through this situation in one piece. Graciously, Nobara led them back to Ichiji’s car first to stash away her copious shopping bags.
Relieved to be rid of them, Mai firmly shut the trunk. Just then, the breeze brushed up against her arms, a harsh realization that the bag handles had chafed her skin raw. She had half a mind to complain until the cool press of a plastic bottle tapped her bicep. She looked over with a raised brow as Nobara held out a bottle of lotion.
“I use it all the time when I’m out and about, it helps with the irritation,” Nobara explained, and as if to prove her point, pinched a dollop to use on herself. The smell of shea butter and... roses, met Mai’s nose. “You’re not allergic to anything right?”
“Not—that I know of.” Mai took it, popping open the cap for a better sniff. It was pleasant. And definitely roses. It suited Kugisaki, she decided, squeezing a good amount onto her palm. “...Thanks.” It was a small act, but more than Mai was expected out of her.
“The café isn’t far from here,” Nobara said in lieu of a proper response, either didn’t hear her or elected to ignore her as she had become engrossed with her phone. When Mai offered the lotion back, Nobara suddenly traded it with the phone. “Here’s the menu, you can decide what to get on the way.”
Mai flinched backward a step at the abruptness. “Um, I don’t really have to get anything.”
“Then just get water or something, I don’t know, those—” Nobara suddenly stopped, realizing what she was about to say and sputtered into giggles as she continued, “Those pores aren’t going to close themselves.”
It took Mai a moment to process what she just heard, then she snickered and shoved Nobara lightly by the shoulder, “Still going on about that? You really need new material, Kugisaki.”
Nobara smirked and stretched her arms above her head. “I’m not going to waste my best when I’m at low blood sugar.”
“Well then lead the way. The last thing I need is for you to suddenly pass out on me,” she said, and started scrolling through the digital menu. One sugary drink and parfait with flowery descriptions matched by enticing photos after another, and all of them so very tempting.
“Yeah, yeah. Come on, it’s not far.”
They ordered their drinks in to-go cups, Nobara paid without a second thought or room for protest, and resumed their evening with a casual stroll through the district.
Mai was the first to finish, tossing away her cup now emptied of its caramel mocha that clung on her tongue with salty-sweet splendor. She stuffed her hands into her front pockets as they walked side-by-side. To any onlooker they’d look to be on a date, and once or twice Mai mused about that herself, wondering if maybe she should create some distance between them to avoid the misconception. Each instance brought warmth to the tips of her ears, that she deigned to ignore—but only just and their strides stayed perfectly matched.
Her unlikely choice of company aside, it’s been awhile since she had strolled through Tokyo like this. There was no need to be on high alert, no veil to traverse through on the hunt for a curse, nor was she encumbered with an ungodly amount of shopping bags. Instead it was simply the daylight waning into a bright evening as the sun sank to touch the mountains, striking it like flints to ignite the sky in a luminous orange. One by one, neon and fluorescent shop lights flickered on with a lively hum, lit ramen lanterns swayed gently in the breeze to beckon passersby inside, and the idle footfalls of pedestrians accompanied by the distant clattering of the commuter train sounded through the air.
She peered at Nobara from the corner of her eye, taking in her content demeanor, different from the determined fervor that shopping had gripped her with. In its place was an effortless smile, as small as it was, curled on her lips. Her eyes glittered beneath the stretch of glowing signage from the way she unabashedly spared glances at each of them, even though Mai could imagine that she’d walked these streets often enough to have them memorized.
“You look like such a tourist,” Mai remarked, though not unkindly.
Her smile grew and she drained the last of her own drink—a mocha like Mai’s though with white chocolate rather than caramel. Mai took a mental note to try it next time. Next time... Would there even be a next time?
“Good,” Nobara finally said in response as tossed the empty cup into the nearest bin. “Means that I haven’t gotten sick of the city yet.”
Mai regarded her curiously, “You’re worried about something like that.”
“Well yeah. Spend enough time in the country and you’ll savor everything new for as long as you can.”
“...Huh.”
Nobara smirked. “Didn’t expect that from someone like me?”
There’s a lot I didn’t expect from you, Mai almost let slip as, unbidden, she recalled their kiss, the reason for her even being here on this not-at-all-date. And from it, a question balanced on the tip of her tongue, one that’s been burning a hole in the back of her mind since she woke up. Why did you save me? However, with the tranquility of the night, and the lightness of Nobara’s steps matching her own strides with no sign of complaint or animosity, she held back.
“You should visit Kyoto sometime then,” she said instead, opting to simply redirect the topic. “Maybe not as much shopping as here, but there’s plenty to do and it’s the best sushi around.”
“Sounds like you’re an expert.”
Mai shrugged. “Momo and Kasumi are more of the foodies, I’m just along for the ride.”
“Damn, and here I was going to ask you to be my tour guide.”
“I can do it, I’m just going to charge you since you’re so eager to spend your stipend.”
“Boo!” Nobara complained, though her eyes still glinted playfully and Mai returned it with a smirk, as close to admittance that she was only half serious.
“But is there anything you ever wanted to do?” Nobara asked after a few moments. “You know, just on your own?”
Another shrug. “Not particularly. At least, not out on the town.” When Nobara said nothing, she elaborated with fondness, “There’s a garden on the Kyoto campus. I like spending time there.”
“Really? Huh...” finally came Nobara’s response, similar to that of Mai’s.
Likewise, Mai mirrored her earlier words, “Not what you were expecting of me?”
“Not at all. But it’s cool, I guess,” Nobara laughed, ever forthcoming. Then her gaze fell, glazed over with memory and deep thought. “Before I left home, my grandmother warned me how easy it’ll be to forget the small things that make us human in a world of curses. Having hobbies and things to enjoy was all she wished for me.” If this is what you must do, then do it wholeheartedly. Look away for too long, and jujutsu will steal it from you, her grandmother’s words surfaced.
“How thoughtful,” Mai hummed, reflecting. ‘Have something to live for’ was ultimately what she gleaned from this stranger’s words. She had to agree that it was certainly easy to forget such things, and even easier still to give up on them entirely, especially when they feel so unobtainable in the first place. An idyllic life of being invisible, overlooked and insignificant; caring only for house chores and marriage. Safe. Impossible.
But then things like going out for sushi on weekends, handshake events with idols, and... yeah, caring for cacti in the school gardens, those weren’t so impossible at least. Does that make them worthy?
“It sounds like it,” Nobara snickered, interjecting into her train of thought. “But that’s because you didn’t have to argue with her for weeks to get admission into the school. I guess if I was going to dedicate my life to curses, she might as well let me go with a blessing.”
“Ah,” Mai grimaced sympathetically. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you gave her enough to hell to get into Jujutsu Tech. Can’t imagine how else I’d get out of that sleeping curse if not for you.”
She meant to be blithe, making light to avoid thinking about how close to the worst case scenario she came. But even she knew how weak the attempt sounded.
“Even if I complicated things with the Binding Vow?” Nobara countered, graciously cheeky to keep the brevity up.
“This wasn’t terrible, if that’s what you want to hear,” Mai readily admitted, and perhaps the mocha was to blame. That and the scent of roses continued to waft just beneath her nose. “Then again, that’s up to you. Have I fulfilled my end of the Vow?”
Nobara pretended to think long and hard. “Hmm... Let’s see, was this worth the price of my first kiss?”
“At least take into the fact that it was memorable,” Mai contended.
“Oh you really think you’re that good of a kisser?”
“I was talking about the insanity of the situation, but sure if that’s what you’re on about then I can prove it,” she countered before she realized what she was even saying. She winced violently and her blood went icy with immediate regret. So many words rushed to amend—to take it back—but, in their sheer numbers, lodged themselves in her throat.
What made it agonizing was how Nobara said nothing for the longest time. No balm of instant rebuke or disgust came, but instead it was genuine, considering silence. And that was perhaps far more terrifying.
They had stopped walking, for how long neither could discern or really think to care. Pedestrians, the scant few that milled about, passed them by like phantoms as they became trapped in a staredown.
“Okay,” said Nobara, the stalemate shattered.
Mai swallowed, hiding her anxiousness behind crossing her arms over her chest. “Okay?”
“Yeah,” she intoned, firmer this time as she drew herself up to her full height. She barely reached eye-level with Mai’s chin, a fact that had been easy to ignore up until this very moment where everything somehow felt magnified, where suddenly the loudest thing in the world was her own heart beating—second only, perhaps, to Mai’s. Was this a bad idea? Probably. But she didn’t leave home to half-ass things. “Prove it.”
So Mai did just that. Though her hand trembled, it stilled once it fitted perfectly against Nobara’s cheek. Though her breath shook, she held it as she brought their faces closer. Though she searched for hesitation anywhere on Nobara’s face, she found none and kissed her.
It lasted for but a moment, but it was a moment where everything and nothing else mattered. Self-conscious doubt and haughty indifference coexisted in a dizzying intensity.
When they separated, their eyes remained half-lidded and dazed. Mai licked her lips, finding a trace of white chocolate left from Nobara’s drink. “How was…?” Her breath faltered.
“Not bad…” Nobara answered, just as lost for breath as she. “Definitely better with you conscious.”
“Sounds like I cleared a low bar,” she said, though she wore a relieved grin.
“Just don’t let it get to your head.”
“Too late,” Mai chuckled. When neither of them made an attempt to pull further away, or to resume their walk back to the car, she blurted, “Thanks for saving me.” And just as Nobara looked poised to wonder why, she barreled on, “You still didn’t let me say it before. This whole Binding Vow thing aside, thank you, Nobara.”
Nobara’s inquisitive gaze morphed into incredulousness, then in a breath, faltered and softened into an exasperated smile when Mai used her name. “You’re welcome. Hate to admit it, but it’d suck not having you around so don’t go getting cursed again, okay?”
Mai stared at her.
“And you’ve got to stop looking at me like that,” Nobara added with a groan.
She blinked, immediately schooling her features. “Like what?”
“Like I said something deep.” A pause. Then, “Like I just keep surprising you. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. That’s all.”
“Right...” Mai relented. “I just, I guess it’s just refreshing to hear sometimes.”
If there was a chance that her face had recovered from the blush of their kiss, it became wholly undermined as she tried and failed to hide the rush of pink in her cheeks with a deliberate turn of her head. “Yeah, well, you should get out more then. Tell anyone I said any of that, I’ll curse you myself.”
Mai scoffed. “Like anyone would believe me?”
At last, Nobara made to leave, bumping her shoulder against Mai’s as she did. “Let’s keep it that way then, yeah?”
Mai reciprocated and fell in step beside her with a newfound ease. “Sure, sure.”
Sooner than either of them realized, Ichiji’s car came into sight as they both rounded the corner with the man himself seated and dutifully awaiting their return. All at once, exhaustion hit them both and they climbed into the backseat without a word but with mutual sighs of relief. Ijichi began the drive back to the school, and in the rearview mirror, they noticeably sat closer to one another than they had before with matching scents of coffee and roses.