head above water

[gimu]

WHO: Choso & YOU
WHAT: CATCH-ALL log for the next indeterminate while!
WHERE: Main Base; Neo-Tokyo & Surrounding Areas; 12am shower thoughts psyche plane
WHEN: Time is irrelevant & shall be labelled as needed
WARNINGS: Jujutsu Kaisen spoilers up to AT LEAST current canon (just in case). Further warnings will be labelled in relevant threads as needed

Comments

09-04-78 - MEDBAY - YUJI

[gimu]

[ The procedure done, Choso is spat back out into the world, a fresh and new man-shaped thing with a thin line of stitches just behind his ear. ]

[eyescar]

[ Yuji is there as soon as he can be, whiplash and lightning fast, rising up from his chair to step over and reach out and take his brother's hand in his own, to offer his body for the curse to lean on. ]

C'mon, aniki. Let me take care of you.

[gimu]

[ Reflexively, he pulls out of the hold, hand snapping back from this boy’s to curl against his side defensively. A small frown pinches his brows together, consternation and confusion warring for supremacy on his strange, wan face. A small trickle of blood has run down his face from his mark at some point, forgotten and dried against his skin. ]

Who?

[eyescar]

... It's Yuji?

[ Reaching into his pocket, Yuji pulls out a hanky to try and clean up the blood on his brother's face with careful fingers. ]

You must be tired, huh?

[gimu]

[ Yuji. Yuji, it’s no name he knows, but nevertheless when the boy speaks it something in him responds. He has no brothers named Yuji… does he?

He doesn’t push away the hand this time. It, too, is familiar, this touch. A reaction of the blood. A warmth of the body. The blood wipes away in flakes. ]

It hurts. Where are the others?

[ If this boy knows him, then maybe the others were incarnated first. ]

[eyescar]

[ Yuji hums softly, shaking his head. ]

Who do you mean? The others -

[ Oh. No, wait -

other brothers. ]

Oh... They're not here right now.

[gimu]

Eso and Kechizu are here, I can feel their passage.

[ But can he? Does he only remember it? They had been right there but how long ago was that?

Was it not just a moment ago? ]

[eyescar]

You can...?

[ Yuji looks around slowly, a little nervous. ]

I haven't seen them at all.

[gimu]

I must find them.

[ so he starts off, one unsteady step after the other, ignoring and pushing aside the queasy shakiness residing in his bones after the procedure. ]

Noranso, Sho-oso, Tanso, Sanso, Kotsuso, Shoso, come with me. We must all stick together.

[eyescar]

Choso...

[ Yuji stops, dropping his hands away, gazing at his brother awkwardly. ]

I'm just Yuji.

[gimu]

[ Yes, that name, too. It is his own. To hear it said, manifested beyond a notion in the dark. Hearing it from this boy, it’s all the more real.

For that, he fetches up against the wall so he may turn to blink at the boy. That confusion flickers again in the tightening of his eyes. ]

Yuji.

[ He knows this name. His bones know it, his mouth, his entire body knows this boy in front of him but there is a buzzing high up behind his eyes and a taste of ozone in the back of his throat and he cannot remember from where.

Yuji under the medical wing’s bright overhead flourescents is so achingly familiar that the clench in his chest is almost sweet to taste. ]

I know you.

[eyescar]

Yeah, you do.

[ Reaching out, Yuji lifts his hand, resting them lightly on Choso's shoulder and leaning in, to let their foreheads touch just so. ]

You've called me little brother this whole time, and now you're gonna go and forget me?

[gimu]

Have I?

[ He wouldn’t forget his brothers, never. Not Choso. Not his brothers. So why has he forgotten this? ]

My little brother, Yuji. You are.

[ Now with a touch of certainty. What the mind may let slip, the blood knows beyond a doubt; the heart beats true. ]

Where then is Eso? Kechizu?

[eyescar]

You're acting like it.

[ Is he being a little bit petulant about it, given how rough the last month has been? Maybe. ]

They're not here, I said that already. I knew this was a bad idea.

[gimu]

What was a bad idea?

[ Is it the pain in his head? The ache behind his eyes? ]

Where are they?

[eyescar]

The operation.

[ Yuji swallows, suddenly uncomfortable, fiddling with the ring around his neck. ]

They haven't been brought here, Choso. It's just you and me.