shoko comes through and opens her eyes to the light afternoon sun. she looks down and sees she is in her high school uniform.
taking stock of her surroundings she she sees that she’s in an airport. she’s in the departures area judging by the flight information display system hanging overhead. it seems she’s the only one around. there is no one else around the waiting lounge. she’s sitting on one of the metal benches and she can’t help but notice that she doesn’t feel its hardness or the coldness of the steel. in fact, she doesn’t feel anything.
shoko tries to remember. she starts small and easy.
it’s been years since the war, give or take nearing a decade, and she was at the school. there were no bodies at the morgue, rare as they come now that the jujutsu world is in peacetime. rebuilding efforts were still underway, the memory and lessons of the war still fresh, and there hadn’t been that many high-level curses so she was sure she wasn't doing any autopsy before this. the clinic has been relatively slow and it was her day off as she recalls, besides. she had called utahime the night before. shoko couldn't remember what it was they were talking about only that her long-time friend had sounded somber over the phone. she has long given up on persuading shoko in the face of her steadfast stubbornness and has since approached the matter with a resigned kind of understanding. a reminder alarm on her phone went off and she passed by her medicine cabinet but didn't bother opening it. then she went to bed. and now here she is.
shoko looks up at the flight information board. there is only one flight destination on the display system.
okinawa, huh? i’ve always wanted to go since—
“fucking finally!" a voice exclaims and shoko looks in the direction it came from and sees satoru. "we thought you'd never come! we've been waiting forever!"
"quit being dramatic, satoru. it hasn't been that long." that was suguru. shoko would know that steady timbre of voice anywhere even decades later. "you sure took your time, huh? that's good. it's good you didn't come so soon after this idiot."
shoko blinks at the image of her former classmates also in their high school uniforms and looking for all intents and purposes like their high school selves. suguru in his baggy pants and his hair in a bun with his side bangs on the right side of his face. satoru with his old circular designer shades and his hair down, not yet styled with the undercut he sported as an adult.
she catches her reflection in one of the airport’s shiny steel pillars and shoko finally sees herself.
she’s in her skirt and standard school-issued stocking. her hair is in a bob she hasn’t worn it since she was in high school, its short ends tickling the sides of her cheek, and the deep bags bruising under her eyes that appeared on her face towards the end of their third year are non-existent.
shoko turns her head to the left and is met with the broad expanse of a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the hangar and runway. there are clouds overhead slowly passing by and the sky is blue. infinitely blue.
‘ah, i see’, shoko thinks as it finally sinks in. she’s dead.
"don't pretend like you weren't bored and getting impatient, suguru,” satoru scoffs as he rolls his eyes. “you were here longer after all."
"eh,” suguru easily shrugs, all too used to his friend’s penchant to complain about anything. “it wasn't so bad once you got here."
he lets out an airy laugh when satoru glomps—there is no other way to describe it, shoko thinks—him in a hug.
of course, even in the afterlife, she's still dealing with these clowns. figures.
"you guys waited for me?" shoko asks and marvels at how her voice carries over to where they stand by a door leading to what she could only assume is the departure gate. and if she couldn’t help the mild disbelief coloring her voice, well. these are, after all, the two most impatient men she knows.
suguru and satoru stop their bickering (flirting?) long enough to turn to her with identical looks of bemusement and incredulity.
"uh, duh?” satoru makes a face like it’s obvious. brat. “of course?"
"you didn't think we'd just go on and let you pass alone, did you?"
good question. to be honest, shoko had always thought she’d be alone. yaga, after all, had drilled into them that death is a solo affair. and she has never imagined the afterlife to be an airport, of all things, but she supposes it makes sense in its own way.
"well? come on, dummy! we're gonna miss our flight!" satoru stomps his foot and gestures at the departure gate looking like he’s a second away from a tantrum. truly such a brat. "you've always wanted to see okinawa, right? after i told you about that summer before everything went to shit?"
"whenever you're ready, shoko," suguru, always so gentle and sweet.
"no! screw that! the time is now!" satoru drawls on the last word because he’s always been dramatic like that. “come on already! everyone's waiting!"
"everyone?" she asks and once again can’t help the tinge of excitement in her voice. does he mean…?
"yes, everyone! they all went ahead but we stayed just for you. aren't we sweet? so come on! chop, chop! quit dilly-dallying!"
slowly, shoko stands up from her seat. she starts with shaky legs, unsure of how to move but clear in the direction she wants to go. her first steps are wobbly, like her body is reminding itself how to walk again, but then satoru groans (always in a hurry even at a place where time does not exist. loser) and pulls suguru to meet her in the middle.
and suddenly, shoko breaks out into a run.
her mind is still catching up with her body (wait, is this still her body? does she still have a body? here?) and the fact that she, the last of her tokyo peers and the last one standing, is finally dead. finally. everything is finally over, and her boys—her boys!—are here and they're together and she’s here and they’re finally complete, and she—
shoko leaps with her arms wide open and lets out an honest-to-good laugh as suguru and satoru readily catch her.
"i missed you guys," shoko breathes out in a wet sob as she winds her arms around them both pulling them against her tight. "i missed you guys so much. why did you idiots have to go so early? i was so lonely." words she never allowed herself to say to them when they were alive and thought would never have the chance to are spilling out and she doesn’t care. it all seems so silly now how she used to keep and guard her words so jealously and she's so happy she got to say it anyway. here, now, in this place where she's free to be honest and say everything she never could say to them. "it was so boring without you morons and i was so lonely."
"sorry, shoko,” suguru whispers his apology softly against her ear earning him a sob and another when he holds her close and plants a gentle kiss to the side of her head. “we didn't mean to. you know how it was."
"well, i didn't mean to,” satoru, never one for tender moments because he’s an awkward loser, but he hugs the both of them close to him and the way he buries his face in the crook of shoko’s neck gives him away. “we all know suguru was being a major butt and got what he deserved."
"hah? what was that? weren't you the one who said he was gonna win and then got his ass handed by the king of curses? sliced half like a piece of ham! hah!"
"look who's talking! your whole left side was practically blown off!"
"and who's fault was that? ah, satoru. you really do have a thing for carving people, huh? man, what the hell is wrong with you? why are you always off base? is that like an aesthetic choice? what's your logic for that?"
"shut up! it’s not my fault a moving target is—"
shoko laughs, loud and gleeful and genuine, because things haven't changed, not really, and they, her boys, are still so silly and stupid and she missed them so much. and now they're here and she's here. a little late to the party, but here. shoko laughs and it gets them laughing too. she lets them whisk her away to the departure gate, talking over each other to tell her about everything and anything. catching her up on the shenanigans they've been up to while waiting for her which she is all too eager to know about. shoko soaks it all in, happy to once again bask in her boys' warmth.
shoko dies and finally, all is well.
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