Chapter Text
Sometimes, the thoughts in his head would grow to be too loud.
Sometimes, the emotions they felt would be too overwhelming.
Sometimes, he just wanted to shut down. Desperately, despite knowing he couldn’t.
Sometimes, being a psychic wasn’t something he felt like he could handle. Not that there was much they could do about it other than wait it out. The intensity of the sensation alone made his head buzz. When those moments came, when Uki’s mind couldn’t filter out what was unnecessary and his magic just kept taking in thoughts and emotions that weren’t his own, he could do nothing but be rendered helpless by his own power.
Usually it would be fine, for the unfortunate event usually happens when they were left alone for too long with their thoughts. Or maybe at the end of a big collab, where simply the number of people and noise caused him to feel overwhelmed.
But not this time.
Unluckily for Uki, it had just been a big collab with people in and out of Nijisanji. Being around new people already made him a little nervous. They were 5 hours into his stream and Noctyx had just left the large group to join a call with just the members. That’s when the rush of magic started settling in.
He felt the ringing in his ear first, however, brushed it off as fatigue.
That was proven to be false later, as in the next second, his vision flashed in and out of focus, speckled with blurs of purple and pink. The sounds from their headset didn’t reach their ears as their senses were blocked out one by one by the magic overflowing from them.
Faintly, they could hear the voices of their genmates. Albeit not able to make out the words, he could identify the worry and panic in their voices.
He felt bad for worrying them, a whispered apology was heard in the voice call before a thud.
And oh did Noctyx panic.
Uki’s name was called out repeatedly, in desperate hope for a reply.
One that they never did get.
Fulgur, being the group's resident big brother, took matters into his own hands. While everyone else was panicking, he swiftly pulled out his phone. He dialled Shu’s phone number faster than he’s ever done before. Temporary relief rushed over him when after a few rings, Shu’s calm voice called back to him.
“Hey Fulgur, what’s up?”
“Hey! I don’t have much time to explain but.. ugh, I don’t even really know what happened.” Shu’s eyebrows furrowed at the frustration and concern clear in Fulgur’s voice.
“Hold on, calm down. Explain what happened slowly.”
“Okay,” Fulgur stopped to take a breath, “we were in vc, just Noctyx. Uki stopped talking so we asked him if he was tired. They didn’t answer for a while and when he did, he just said ‘sorry’? And then we heard a sound that sounded like falling and nothing’s come out from his end since.”
Shu let the words sink in. Now it was obvious why the usually composed cyborg sounded so distraught.
“Okay hold on. I’m coming to you guys.”
“Thank you so much, Shu.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The line cut off and before he knew it, a portal appeared in front of Fulgur and he stepped into the familiar swirl of purple fire.
When he came out the other side, Fulgur was met with the rest of his genmates in a lilac-coloured room, all looking just a little more bewildered than him.
Lastly, Shu appeared behind them just as Alban pointed to an unconscious figure on the floor. “Guys!”
“Uki!”
Sonny was the one to pick up Uki’s lithe body off the floor, below his gaming chair where he had fallen when he tried to get up.
Uki was carried to his bed and propped up with their head on Yugo’s shoulder. Yugo wrapped an arm around Uki’s waist protectively and stared up at Shu, waiting for, hopefully, an explanation as to what happened.
“…Is he gonna be okay?”
Alban asked, sounding more than a little shaken up.
“I feel like this is a good time to tell you.. he’s told me not to before but we’ve been talking about it recently and I think this is a good time.”
They all stared at him as the suspense built up. It almost felt like Shu was talking in slow motion, just to make them writhe in anticipation.
“Uki is a magical being. We all know that. Magic was made part of them the day they got their powers. They came at a time when he was weak, to restore his energy, so it became part of his lifeline. Kinda like blood for humans I guess, it flows in their veins and keeps them alive.”
Shu took a breath before continuing.
“Sometimes though, since it’s such a big part of him, it can get to be too much for the human part of his body and mind to handle. Especially since they were born human and only got their powers later in life after tragic events.”
They all looked down at the limp body on the bed with sympathy.
“And psychic powers are a really complicated, uhh… genre of magic? Because it connects to both external and internal factors not only for the person who has them, but for everyone around them too.”
Alban caught on.
“So, basically, he fainted because his magic went out of control?”
“Something like that. It’s probably more due to the circumstances today though, because there were a lot of people in our collab.”
“Oh yeah, right! Aww man, he could have told us.”
“Uki doesn’t talk about himself often.”
Yugo chimed in, “They should! I don’t know why he doesn’t. He listens to everyone but he never wants anyone to listen to him.”
“I bet they think it’s a bother to other people. It’s not!” Sonny’s comment made everyone think back to what Uki’s said about his past, feeling both bitterness and affection for the quiescent soul.