Zenith of stars chapter 2

"… Satoru, what are you carrying over your shoulder?"

"Oh, hey, Suguru!" Satoru-sama –Satoru-oniichan?– responds lightly. Shiki fumbles a little, from where a bony shoulder digs into her stomach as the young man turns suddenly. Being carried around like this is rather disorienting, especially given that she currently cannot see anything at all. "Guess what, I found Nanami's missing little niece!"

A sudden whirl of movement, and Shiki gets the distinct feeling that she's being proudly held out, almost like some misbehaving pet. She's starting to get the impression that Satoru-oniichan doesn't really know how to deal with children.

The new arrival makes a distinctly alarmed sound in their throat. "That's a kid? What the hell are you –wait, no, that's not how you hold a child! For goodness' sake, Satoru–"

Unfamiliar hands settle roughly over her shoulders, and make to take her from Satoru-oniichan's arms. Shiki startles with a jolt, twisting and shrinking back, reaching out for what's at least still familiar, in this world of darkness.

"Ha! Seems like she likes me better than you," Satoru-oniichan's voice above her head is smug. Shiki can barely hear him over the thump-thump-thump of her rapid heartbeat, and slowly takes in a soft, shuddering breath. Calm. She has to remain calm. Ima-san might not be watching over her every movement anymore, but Shiki still needs to–

"Hey," the new voice says. Suguru, Satoru-oniichan had called him. There's less frustration in his voice now, approaching something almost gentle instead. "Hey, please don't panic. I'm sorry for scaring you, it's just Satoru I was upset with."

"… It's alright," Shiki responds, after a brief pause. She reflexively turns towards the general direction of this new voice, despite not being able to see anything. Living in total darkness is hard, but –but she thinks that she'd still take this, over the endless trail of macabre red lines sprawling over anything and everything. "I'm… sorry for overreacting. But, I'd like to stay with Satoru-oniichan. Please."

"Okay. Okay, that's fine," Suguru-san says placatingly. Then, "Satoru-oniichan?"

Shiki is jostled around again as Satoru-oniichan shrugs. "What? Turns out that we're distant cousins, it works. I don't see why anyone would complain about it."

"I think Nanami-kun might have a few complaints," the other young man responds dryly. "On that note, did you want to take her to see Shoko first? She doesn't look so well. Is there something wrong with her eyes…?"

"Shoko's on the other side of campus, isn't she? I thought I'd take Shiki here to Nanami first before swinging by."

Kento-ojichan. Anticipation flutters in her chest; Shiki misses her family–

"Let me rephrase that: You should definitely take her to see Shoko first," Suguru-san says flatly. Both the little girl and her cousin make identical sounds of protest, but he easily steamrollers over them both. "Unless you want Nanami to see his niece like this?"

… For some reason, Shiki suddenly has the impression that Satoru-oniichan is squinting at her right now. "Uh… so what's wrong with how she looks?"

"What do you mean, 'what's wrong with how she looks?'" his friend sounds incredulous. "Satoru, the kid's thin as a stick and there's bandages wrapped around her head. She looks like you kidnapped her straight out of a hospital bed or something!"

An awkward, telling silence ensues.

"… Are you kidding me," Suguru-san deadpans, in a soulless tone of voice that's completely and utterly flat. "Satoru, tell me you didn't kidnap a kid straight out of the hospital."

Satoru-oniichan only laughs in response, a careless sound. Shiki quickly decides to speak up in her cousin's defense before things can escalate. "I came with him willingly! So, there was no kidnapping involved… this time around…?"

The little girl pauses. Does Ima-san spiriting her away from the hospital the first time around count as kidnapping? Shiki certainly hadn't gotten any say in it, hadn't expected to fall asleep in her hospital bed and wake up somewhere else entirely. But for all her unfamiliarity she is related to Ima-san, so does that mean–

There's a light smack, the sound of palm meeting forehead. "… And now I'm even more concerned. Okay, look, just… take her to see Shoko first, Satoru. Trust me on this."

"Yeah, sure," Satoru-oniichan still doesn't sound like he understands what Suguru-san is getting at, but he acquiesces easily enough. As for Shiki… Shiki certainly still wants to see Kento-ojichan as soon as possible, but…

But, Suguru-san might have a point. She's effectively blind right now so she hasn't looked at a mirror in days, but he's probably not wrong that Shiki is looking a little… bedraggled, at the moment. If she were to show up in front of Kento-ojichan looking like that, then Kento-ojichan might be sad, right? He might be sad. And Shiki doesn't want Kento-ojichan to be sad, especially not on her behalf.

(After all, Shiki is still alive, isn't she? … Unlike her parents.)

"C'mon, let's get going."

For all that Satoru-oniichan had offhandedly mentioned 'Shoko' being on the other side of the school campus, it actually doesn't take them very long to find her, in the end. Shiki doesn't keep track of the twists and turns they take very well, but soon enough there is a young woman's voice sounding directly in front of her, accompanied by the faint scent of tobacco smoke.

"Is that a kid? Where did you kidnap her from?"

Satoru-oniichan makes a vaguely offended sort of sound in his throat while Suguru-san chuckles next to him. "Why do both of you immediately assume that I kidnapped her?!"

"Probably because no one in their right mind would trust you around a child," Shoko-san responds wryly, a tired edge to her voice. Then, in a softer tone that's clearly directed towards Shiki, "Hold still for a moment, okay? I'll need to touch you in order to heal you."

Shoko-san's fingers are cold, and accompanied by a surge of… something. It's a little hard to describe. Almost like a cold current that sinks beneath her skin, reaching down to her bones. It's the sort of chill that's not exactly cold, like winter snow or biting hoarfrost, but instead more like… more like what one would associate with cool water that's freshly-drawn from a deep well, instead. It's not sharp, not stinging. Just… cleansing, in a sense.

The dull pain behind her eyes subsides. Her head doesn't feel quite so heavy anymore.

"There, done," the young woman says. "Feeling any better?"

"… Yes. Thank you."

Shiki opens her eyes.

… Then promptly screws them shut again, upon the harsh, sudden influx of light.

"Take it easy, there's no rush," Shoko-san sounds mildly amused by Shiki's reaction. "Does everything look alright?"

Slowly, the little girl opens her eyes again, blinking rapidly several times as her blurry vision readjusts to the light after days of total darkness. "… No."

"No?" A startled sound, mixed with concern. The young woman's hands reach for Shiki again, gently cradling her temples as that strange energy envelops her again. "… Odd, it doesn't look like there are any lingering issues. Hmm. Can you tell me what's feeling wrong for you?"

"The lines," the little girl frowns, disappointed. "The lines are still there."

Shoko-san pauses. "Sorry, the what?"

"The lines," Shiki repeats. "The red lines are still there, wherever I look."

Behind her, there is a sharp, startled intake of breath. Suguru-san? "Shoko, her eyes. Satoru, did you–?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Satoru-oniichan says, leaning down in front of her –and for the first time, Shiki sees her self-proclaimed cousin with her eyes.

He's tall, even taller than she remembers Kento-ojichan being. His hair is white. The exact same shade of snow-white as Shiki's own. Red lines flicker over her cousin's body, but they are sparse and few in number. Far, far fewer than anyone she's seen, ever since waking up to a world that didn't make sense anymore. But, more than any of this–

The young man fiddles with the sunglasses on his face, one hand reaching up and hooking around the frame as he lowers the black shades, and Shiki finds herself looking up into a pair of crystalline blue eyes.

Oh.

"You're like me," she breathes, realization dawning. Blue eyes. Cursed blue eyes.

… Granted, Satoru-oniichan's eyes aren't precisely identical to Shiki's eyes, not really. Whereas hers are dark and abyssal, his are light and shot through with stardust. It's patently obvious that their eyes are very much different from each other, but Shiki cannot help the inexplicable burst of kinship that washes over her in this moment all the same. Because she can tell that there's something about his eyes that's still so, so similar to hers–

Similar, yet fundamentally different.

"Mm… well, sort of," Satoru-oniichan responds with a slightly distracted air. He peers back down at her, discerning, and Shiki suddenly feels seen on some level that she understands to be far beyond her comprehension. "Those eyes of yours… hmm, it certainly doesn't seem like you're observing the flow of cursed energy…"

The young girl blinks owlishly. "Cursed energy?"

"… Right, I almost forgot that you're from a normal background."

"Wait, really?" To the side, brown-haired Shoko-san sounds vaguely startled. "Are you saying that she's not from your clan? … Huh. I almost thought she was your little sister or something, she certainly looks the part."

"Nah, Shiki here is Nanami-kun's niece," the white-haired teen waves his hand dismissively.

"Ah, so she's the kid who went missing from the hospital?"

"Got it in one!" Satoru-oniichan gives his friend a cheerful thumbs-up.

"Have some tact," Suguru-san grumbles. He brushes a lock of dark bangs away from his face, then turns towards Shiki. The little girl is sitting perfectly still atop the examination table she'd been set down on, hands folded over her lap. "Cursed energy is… well, it's a form of energy born from negative emotions. It's used to perform what we call 'cursed techniques,' which allows us to more effectively exorcise cursed spirits."

Shiki tilts her head. Some of what he's saying sounds vaguely familiar from what she's overheard Ima-san and the others saying recently, but it's still so very confusing. Especially because–

"I don't have a cursed technique," she informs him, straightforward and matter-of-fact.

Shiki still remembers the first time she'd met Ima-san. The woman hadn't bothered hiding her disappointment upon ascertaining that there was absolutely nothing special about Shiki –save her hair color, if anything had to be said about the girl at all.

… But Ima-san's attitude towards her was completely different now, ever since… ever since the day Shiki woke up in the hospital. After Shiki's eyes changed, and her entire world became covered in red lines of death.

Is… is this what they'd meant by 'cursed energy?' 'Cursed techniques?'

So then, is Shiki… cursed?

Is that why her parents–

Satoru-oniichan straightens and readjusts his sunglasses so that they're covering his eyes again. "You do have a cursed technique, actually. Cursed technique, cursed eyes."

Shiki does not stiffen from this revelation, from her cousin's confirmation. She does not allow her hands to curl into fists. Ima-san's cold satisfaction flashes across the forefront of her mind, and Shiki just feels… numb.

Unbidden, she cannot help but recall the words that her father had once spoken to her. Don't worry, Shiki. No matter what my sister says, it's a good thing that you don't have a cursed technique, or anything of the sort. Her mother had been much the same.

But neither of her parents were here anymore. Neither of them were still alive. And Shiki… Shiki…

"… Can I see Kento-ojichan now?" she asks quietly. It comes as a relief when the three agree to her request easily enough, instead of dwelling any further on Shiki's cursed eyes.

Satoru-oniichan briefly gets an earful from Suguru-san for 'carrying children around like a sack of potatoes.' As the agitated conversation goes on above her, Shiki's gaze unconsciously gravitates towards the red lines again. The lines that are everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. Across the ceiling, over the floorboards. Trailing across every object in her line of sight. Every person. There is a macabre line running down the side of Satoru-oniichan's neck, disappearing beneath his collar. Another line is slashed prominently over Suguru-san's face, right across his forehead.

Beginning and end. Open and close.

Inexorable. Inevitable.

(Death.)

The little girl turns and promptly buries her face in the side of her cousin's jacket, screwing shut her eyes in a vain attempt to block everything out of her mind.

"Okay, okay. Let's get you to Nanami-kun, yeah?"

Shiki nods mutely, suddenly unable to bring herself to say any words.

.

.

He looks different.

Kento-ojichan, that is. He looks… different. Older. Taller, too. Not to the extent of being unrecognizable, but just… different. He's sitting in a mostly-empty classroom with only one other student in the desk beside him, when Satoru-oniichan cheerfully slams open the door.

"Nanami, look at what I found!"

"Gojo. What are you–" The tired, long-suffering edge to Kento-ojichan's voice vanishes instantly when he looks up and his gaze lands on her. Brown eyes widen as he promptly shoots to his feet, chair clattering forgotten behind him. "Shiki?"

"… Kento-ojichan," Shiki greets quietly. She doesn't cry, but there's definitely a few watery blinks as she drinks in the sight of her young uncle. He's alive. Kento-ojichan is still alive. "I… I missed you."

Within seconds, Kento-ojichan has crossed the classroom and seized her in a tight hug. But it takes Shiki a few moments to respond in kind, for her fingers to carefully find purchase in the sleek fabric of his uniform, determinedly avoiding the red lines running down the length of his back.

"You're welcome, by the way," her newfound cousin says loudly from somewhere behind them.

"Satoru!" Suguru-san hisses sharply.

"What? I'm the one who found her!" Satoru-oniichan mutters petulantly. "Don't I deserve a little more appreciation here? Or at least a 'thank you,' maybe?"

The other boy clicks his tongue disapprovingly. "It's the least you could've done, considering it was your clan that kidnapped her in the first place!"

"… But is it really kidnapping if we're the ones who legally have custody of her?" Satoru-oniichan muses aloud, deliberately obtuse. He grins sharply when his friend throws him a withering look for the attitude. "Aw, c'mon, don't be like that, Suguru."

"You're impossible," the dark-haired boy informs him flatly, then turns towards Kento-ojichan. "Feel free to ignore him if you want, Nanami-kun."

"No, I…" Kento-ojichan clears his throat, straightening. Shiki lingers by her uncle's side, not ready to part from him quite just yet. If the way that his fingers gently curl over her own is any indication of things, he feels similarly in this moment as well. "… Thank you for finding her, Gojo-san."

"And you're very welcome!" The white-haired teen chirps. "Oh, you should thank Shoko too, since she took a look at Shiki with her reversed cursed technique. Don't thank Suguru, though, he didn't do anything–"

"Excuse me? Who was the one that dug up those records–"

"Thank you," Kento-ojichan hurriedly breaks in. Then, more sincerely, "Thank you. I… I'm grateful for all of your efforts as well. Ieiri, Geto."

Ieiri-san and Geto-san. Shiki commits the names to memory, echoing her uncle in voicing her own thanks as well.

"So you're Nanami's niece?" A new voice sounds from behind her, cheery and bright. The speaker is a smiling, dark-haired boy –the other student who'd been inside the classroom with Kento-ojichan when they came in. "Nice to meet you! It's good to see that you're okay, Nanami's been really worried."

"Haibara."

"Eh? Did I say anything I wasn't supposed to, Nanami? I mean, there's nothing wrong with letting her know that you were concerned, right?"

Shiki leans into her uncle's side, something warm curling inside her chest at this tidbit of news. "I… I was worried about you too, Kento-ojichan."

A soft sigh, somewhere above her head. Her uncle pats her on the shoulder. "There was no need for you to worry about me, Shiki. I'm… I'm just glad to see you're well."

I feel the same way, oji-chan.

"He'd try and visit you whenever he could, over the past year," Haibara-san adds. "And then when you suddenly disappeared from the hospital entirely, and none of the doctors would say where you went. It was a pretty big scare, before we finally figured out that the Gojo Clan stepped in to take care of you!"

Shiki isn't entirely sure if 'take care of you' is the right way to phrase her kidnapping via unknown relatives. From the way Kento-ojichan pauses stiffly beside her, he probably doesn't entirely agree with it, either.

"… Was it Ima?" he asks quietly. Shiki nods. "I should've guessed. But why would she…?"

"Take a look at her eyes and you'll have your answer, Nanami," Satoru-oniichan clicks his tongue.

"Her eyes?" Kento-ojichan mutters, glancing down. Shiki's gaze is determinedly fixated on the ground. She doesn't want to look up. She doesn't want to see–! "Shiki, please, look at me."

A brief moment of silence. Then, slowly and reluctantly, Shiki lifts her head.

Red lines. She'd glimpsed them earlier, but like this –standing as close to her uncle as she is, the stark red lines scored across his body are clear and unmistakable. Undeniable.

Kento-ojichan sucks in a short, sharp breath. "What happened?"

"So it really is a new development, then," Satoru-oniichan muses from the doorway. "Great. Nice to have confirmation."

"Does it hurt?" Kento-ojichan ignores his upperclassman entirely. He drops to a knee in front of Shiki again, one hand automatically coming up to reach for her face, before apparently thinking the better of it. "How in the world did something like this even… Ieiri-san, could you take a look at her? Shiki's eyes, they were never–!"

"Breathe, Nanami," Shoko-san –Ieiri-san– shifts her weight, taking a seat on a nearby desk. "Calm down, I've already ran my technique over her, earlier. Her eyes are functionally fine."

"… Her eyes are blue."

"So are mine!"

"Satoru, your eyes are supposed to be blue," Suguru-san (Geto-san?) rolls his eyes.

The white-haired teen gesticulates in Shiki's direction, then points to himself for emphasis. "What's wrong with cursed eyes being blue?!"

His friend gives him a dubious look. "… Is that even a thing?"

"I'd say that it appears that she's manifested some sort of ocular curse, after waking up from her coma," Ieiri-san says, blithely ignoring her classmates' animated bickering in the background. "If possible, it would probably be best to check in the Gojo Clan's records, to see if there were any previous cases similar to hers that we could refer to. It's not the Six Eyes, but… perhaps some variant of it?"

Kento-ojichan's lips thin. "I… she's never shown any signs of cursed techniques before. Ima-san even came and checked."

Ieiri-san shrugs. "While stronger techniques usually show earlier signs when you look for them, it's still considered normal for children to awaken a cursed technique when they're anywhere from four to six years old. Shiki here is, what. Six?"

"She's… yes, she's just turned six."

"Right on the dot, then," Ieiri-san nods, "I know the clans also have their ways to preemptively check for cursed techniques even when a kid's just been born, but clearly there's room for error. Everything is still completely normal, if slightly unexpected in your niece's case."

Kento-ojichan quickly glances down towards Shiki, who stares back up at him impassively. "… She's going to be a sorcerer, isn't she."

The words themselves are a question, but they come out as something more of a resigned statement instead. Ieiri-san nods again, vaguely sympathetic, for some ominous reason Shiki can't quite understand.

Sorcerer? Just like Kento-ojichan?

"Ocular jujutsu like this is rare, Nanami. It's unlikely that the Gojo Clan would be willing to let her go," the young woman sighs tiredly. "If she becomes a sorcerer, then at least she'll be able to protect herself. And… considering what the clans are like about keeping certain techniques within the family…"

At this, the blond frowns, scowling. "She's not even a Gojo! Doesn't that count for anything?"

"Actually? She kind of is," Satoru-oniichan suddenly chimes in unhelpfully from the side. "Ima already went through the procedures, as her next-of-kin who's an adult."

"If you want to dispute that, it's probably going to be years down the line before you actually can, Nanami-kun," Geto-san rubs his chin, faintly apologetic. "And… her father was born a Gojo, right? That's probably all the higher-ups will focus on, knowing them."

Kento-ojichan makes a frustrated, helpless sound in his throat.

Shiki bites her lip, leaning forward. She doesn't… she doesn't really understand what's going on. Doesn't really understand anything beyond knowing that her eyes have changed, and this means that Ima-san wants her for –for something. Something about curses? Cursed techniques? Sorcerers? … Shiki doesn't know. But what Shiki does know, listening to this conversation, is that Kento-ojichan can't help her. He wants to –he cares for Shiki, undoubtedly– but he can't help her, not in face of the 'Gojo Clan.'

So.

"I'll be fine, Kento-ojichan," Shiki tries to smile. In this moment, all she can think of is Ima-san's cold satisfaction. "… Ima-san wants me for my eyes. I… I'll be fine."

"That's not exactly a good thing, Shiki," her young uncle says tersely, voice low. She knows that. But even so–

"It's not as if you can do anything about it, Nanami-kun," Satoru-oniichan drawls lazily from the side. "Not right now, at least. And it's not a bad thing, either. Even putting aside the fact that you're only a student right now… with her eyes like that, do you really think you can protect her on your own? I started getting my first assassins sent after me when I was five, y'know. Kidnappers, too."

… Assassins?!

Mildly alarmed, Shiki gives her similarly white-haired cousin a scrutinizing look, trying to determine if he's just messing with her. She gets a sharp-toothed grin and little else. Glancing up at Kento-ojichan reveals that her uncle has gone pale, however, so clearly there's an element of truth to Satoru-oniichan's words.

"True, she doesn't have the Six Eyes," her cousin continues blithely. "But Shoko mentioned it earlier, didn't she? Ocular jujutsu like ours is rare. That makes us valuable. I'd be surprised if there aren't any cursed users going after her once news of her eyes gets out, honestly. And I'm sure that there are already certain rumors… circulating."

Kento-ojichan looks grim.

"There are obviously a lot of problems with the three great families, but Satoru does have a point here," Geto-san sighs. "If it weren't for her eyes, maybe we could try to convince Yaga-sensei to have her be a ward of the school, similar to your current situation, Nanami, but…"

"I understand," Kento-ojichan says quietly, hands clenching into fists at his sides.

Geto-san looks sympathetic. "It's not so bad. Probably. If nothing else, at least Satoru will be able to keep an eye out for her, right?"

Satoru-oniichan gives a lazy thumbs-up in response to that. Kento-ojiichan doesn't seem entirely convinced, and. Well. Maybe it's pretty obvious that her cousin doesn't know how to take care of children. But Shiki remembers how he'd breezed into her hospital room and waltzed right back out with Ima-san unable to say anything against him, remembers how he'd carried her all across the school grounds and kept his word. How do you feel about sneaking out to visit Nanami-kun?

"I'll be fine, Kento-ojichan," Shiki says again. And this time, the words come out with a touch more genuine.

Even if Ima-san has ulterior motives for wanting Shiki, even if the Gojo Clan turns out to be dangerous in a way that might make assassins or kidnappers seem like the preferable option, even if it turns out that Satoru-oniichan might be similarly helpless against the wishes of his clan, just as Kento-ojichan currently is…

Shiki is just happy to see Kento-ojichan again. She doesn't want Kento-ojichan to worry. She won't be a burden for Kento-ojichan.

(… She won't get him killed. Not like what happened with her parents.)

Shiki… really, really shouldn't still be alive.

But she is. She's dead, but not, and now her eyes reflect that unnatural dichotomy in the form of fractured, eerie red lines.

So.

"I'll be fine."

.

.

…

.

Edit 10/27/22: Fixed age discrepancy error.