June of Doom 2026 JJK Take me instead
Spoilers for season 3; to the ones left behind and those who had to leave us behind to survive. If you want more tears, listen to Brother by Madds Buckley @juneofdoom
cw: near-death experience, suicide/self-sacrifice, blood, gore, major character death
No… no, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
This couldn’t be how it ended. She refused. With ragged breath, Mai dragged her battered body along the coarse floor slick with their mingling blood. Maki lay unmoving, far too still for her sister. She was the one who got out. She was supposed to be the one who made it. She survived fucking Shibuya, and Ogi just…
No! Mai shook her head as it swam, her vision doubling as she struggled to stay on her elbows. Leaning over Maki, Mai’s tears ran rivulets through the blood on her face. Come on, there had to be something she could do.
She’d never make it out of here.Â
Mai didn’t have Maki’s strength or speed or even her cursed pact, but she still had cunning. Think, just think! We’re running out of time. Mai pushed to her knees and cradled Maki’s head, petting her cheek. Her eyes slipped closed, and for a moment she could pretend they were on a beach. The growing wetness spreading through her side and knees was just salt water, and Maki was only sunbathing. Maki took her with her all those years ago, and they were just able to exist together.
Gods, she was broken. A choked laugh escaped her at the thought, she couldn’t even dream of a proper life. Just a scene from a stupid book.
Mai let out a shuddering breath and opened her eyes, a sad smile slipping onto her face. Of course, there was still one thing she could do. Cursed techniques were tied to the soul. “You certainly…are tough,” Mai murmured, heart easing as a peace washed over her. “It was always going to come to this, wasn’t it?” Tears slowed as she leaned down and pulled all of her cursed energy, her very soul, into her mouth. “This sucks.”
The world faded and twisted, the same pristine beach now materializing before them with storm clouds rolling above, threatening to release at any moment. The moment stretched into infinity as Mai quietly watched the waves lap at the shore. She rolled into a sitting position, the pain a distant memory in this final moment of peace they’d never had in life.
“You basically know at this point what my technique can do, right?” Mai asked as Maki sat up with a gasp. “But I can’t create anything large or complicated.” Mai pushed to her feet, hissing slightly as she felt a slight pull of the wound even here. “I’m wounded, too, from where he stabbed me, so after this I’ll die.”Â
Mai always thought she’d go out screaming or fighting or something, but maybe it was better this way. If they were in a fight, the world never would’ve given this moment. It was a miracle even now with how shitty a hand life had dealt. So the least she could do is not curse her sister. To leave her with something positive for the first time in years. No fight, no argument, no heated words, just peace. As tears welled up, Mai strode into the ocean so Maki wouldn’t see, confusion radiating off her sister. “Later, good luck on your own after this,” Mai managed.
“Hey! Mai, wait!” Maki surged up, chasing after.
Mai winced, but she couldn’t stop. She could barely stand denying her even when they met at Jujutsu High, much less when they were younger. She had to keep pushing through, had to give her one blessing and not a curse with what little she had left.Â
“What are you talking about? Come back here!”
Mai finally stopped, knee-deep in the water as she turned. “I’ve known for a long time now why twins are considered inauspicious by jujutsu sorcerers. You have to offer something in order to gain anything.” Maybe she’d understand, maybe she wouldn’t until Mai was resting in her hand. “This goes beyond pacts. The fact we go through pain to grow stronger follows the same logic. But that never functions properly in twins like us. Because jujutsu views identical twins as the same individual.”
“You get it? You are me, and I am you.” That’s why only one of them could ever get out. If one was free, the other had to stay behind. If one was to live, well… “You can long to grow stronger and work so hard you spit up blood,” memories flashed unbidden of “training” her technique, always driven to blood in more ways than one but never accomplishing more than a bullet, “but it’s all pointless. Because I don’t want to grow stronger at all.” She only wanted to appease the family, to stop the pain, she didn’t want any of this. She never had.Â
Maki always was the brave one. Maki limped forward, far more off balance from her wounds as she tried to catch up, the tide pulling at her legs as she nearly fell.
“Even if you don’t have a technique, it’s pointless if I have one. So as long as I exist, Maki, you’ll be incomplete.”Â
Maki finally caught up, pushing through the ocean as Mai waited for her. Perhaps a little selfishly, but didn’t she deserve it at this point? It was her final moments. “I get it!”
“This is all I’ll ever leave you with, cast off the rest,” Mai managed simply, eyes pleading with Maki to take the blessing and not the curse. Maybe she spoke too much, maybe not enough. No, it would never be enough. But in these final moments, she only had so much strength left.
Maki snatched the head of wheat from her hand with wide, wet eyes.
“I’ll take the cursed energy and everything else with me,” Mai promised, swallowing thickly. “Just promise me one thing.” One small, selfish thing she couldn’t bear to part without.
“Destroy it all.” With her last bit of energy, she offered a wet smile, “All of it, you hear? Big Sis?” the words slipped out like they were children again, and Mai slipped away.
