Chapter Text
"Kugisaki?" Yuji mutters, his tiny hands on the straps of his red backpack. "Where are you?"
Perhaps they have wandered off too far. The dark night casted a shadowy curtain over the buildings and objects, the cold wind causing the trees to move and the leaves to rustle. At each step, something looked mischievous.
A hunched person stares at him, and Yuji's lip trembles—but in a moment as the silvery moonlight glares at them; he learns that it is simply a bush.
"Kugisaki..!" Yuji yells, his soft voice too afraid to make loud noises. "Where did you go..?"
They have gone here to hunt ghosts. Or, well, to complete a test of courage given to them by their classmates.
'I don't get her sometimes..' Yuji wonders to himself, looking around for at least a glimpse of the familiar brown hair. 'Nobara is really fearless. But I have to find her!'
A laugh resonates behind him.
"Kugi—" Yuji turns around, a warm smile beginning to show on his face. But it falls down as soon as it came up.
He's facing a stranger.
It's a taller person, staring at him with such dangerous but playful eyes that Yuji's instincts scream at him to run. The shadows obscure their face, but their eyes glint in the moonlight. The faded blue of their hair, and the weird shirt they have on.. Yuji could see all of it, but not their face.
"Oi." The man speaks. "Are you alone here?"
'I have to run! But what about Nobara?'
"My mom is here." Yuji firmly says, standing straight and gripping the backpack's straps tighter. He looks like a red panda attempting to appear threatening. "So, please leave!"
"In such a place?" The man bitterly laughs, suddenly tilting his head to the side. "I know. You're looking for your friend. I'll even help you."
Yuji's eyes widen and the air within him refuses to leave his lungs. He's too afraid to even move a muscle. "Where is she..?"
"Head there."
His disgusting smile spreads across his face like a wrinkle. His eyes stare at Yuji with such hatred, as if he were staring at a dumb sheep. His slender finger points towards the abandoned metro that was never finished.
Yuji runs without looking back; terrified that if he were to look behind, he'd see that horrifying face of the stranger that seemed to contort in the wrongest of ways.
"Kugisaki!" Yuji yells, but it sounds more like a hopeless cry of a lamb.
Nobara is standing right in the middle of the abandoned, horribly unsafe, structure. She's holding a hammer, presumably left at the building site. It's rusty and old.
"Itadori!" Nobara shouts back, her little grin tugging at the corners of her lips. "I found a ghost, isn't that amazing!?"
Yuji trembles, tears prick at the corners of his eyes. "Let's go back home! There's a bad man here.."
"Don't be a wimp."
"Kugisaki!" Yuji shouts, his shaky finger pointing behind her. "Run! Kugisaki!"
"Huh?"
A bang echoes in the underground. Soon, another bang follows it, this time, it's the sound of a hammer falling to the ground accompanied by the thud of someone falling down. The only light down here are the half-working lights that barely shine enough to properly see anything.
"Kugisaki..?"
Tears stream down Yuji's cheeks, and they fall down to the ground with no noise. His hands let go of his backpack's straps, and they fall down to his sides. His rapid breathing doesn't calm down, he can't control his short breaths nor his thumping heart that could slip out of his throat any second now.
Kugisaki is laying down on the ground. There's something scarlet under her head and on her face. Her backpack is next to her, and her hands weakly hold the rusty hammer.
"When I leave this village with you," Nobara once said, her tiny smile a precious treasure Yuji held close to his heart. "I'll become a full-time model! And—and I'll have a lot of fans, and everyone will love me! I'll know lots of people, but you and Fumi and Saori will always be the closest to me. Pinky promise!"
"Will I be able to be a model, too?" Yuji asked, leaning towards Nobara with hopeful eyes. "Cuz, I wanna have lots of friends too. I'd like to be a firefighter more though because I want to save people, but I can be a firefighter and a model!"
"Nope, you're too ugly!" Nobara laughed, pointing at Yuji. "You could be my assistant though. You could carry stuff for me forever!"
"That sounds like hell!"
"…Kugisaki?"
Blood continues to pour from her head. The bullet shot through the right side of her face. If Yuji had been a few centimeters to the right, he would've been wounded too. Her bloody face strikes Yuji and he breathes in short bursts. His little fingers clench into fists, and the image of her busted face is forever embedded in his young mind.
Snot drips down his nose to his lip, and he sniffles, his eyes twitching as the tears come and come—seemingly never intending to stop. His hands tremble, and the foul taste of snot further pushes Yuji to cry harder.
"Kugisaki.."
Tomorrow is school.
They will walk there together like always.
Well, not always. Yuji had moved here with his grandparents a few months ago. They've known each other for just a few months, and yet it felt as if they had known each other for years.
Not always anymore because Nobara is..
"Please wake up.."