𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 → jjk x m! reader

25. | nothing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE;
beyond death's gaze
chapter title taken from the song by: bruno major

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It was an ordinary, cold and gloomy day — the perfect kind of day to bid farewell to the dead, really — when [Y/n] woke up to a newfound gift: the ability to see 'death.'

However, calling it just that might not even cut it. It would be an absolute understatement. The Cursed Eyes of Death Perception were very special, after all, and very rare too. So rare, in fact, that the last known person to have them was way back in the Heian Era, the Golden Age of Jujutsu.

In that ordinary day — or should he call it a fateful one instead? — [Y/n] opened his eyes to a strange, brand-new world.

Messy, red lines snaked every corner of the room like irreparable cracks. They sprawled over his bed, the floors, the walls—everywhere, and he felt sick just looking at them.

Maybe that's why he got curious.

Maybe that's why [Y/n] prodded a finger into one of the lines, expecting his finger to be rejected by it, to be resisted by it, only for his finger to sink in. Down, down, down into the strange red lines. But, it's not enough, his finger never reached the bottom.

"If I have something thinner... then, maybe...?" His gaze darted to the nearby desk where a pair of scissors lay. With a single-minded focus, he swiftly grabbed it and, in one swift motion, stabbed it into the red line. It sank all the way to the bottom.

"...It's kinda fun."

Alongside the gleeful wonder in his eyes, he continued tracing the scissors along one of the red lines on the bed. Thud. It cleanly broke apart—no, sliced apart, as if it were meant to be.

"What are you doing?!"

[Y/n] turned around, facing the voice behind him. Oh, his father's here, glaring down with unmistakable anger. A classic expression, indeed.

"What happened here? What did you do, [Y/n]?!" His father asked again, though his frustration was more evident this time. But geez, no need for all the shouting, really.

"I traced a red line that was running all over the bed, and then it broke. It was as simple as that," [Y/n] explained, his tone straightforward and honest. But it seemed his father was still struggling to grasp the concept.

"What are you talking about? Explain it in detail, [Y/n]!"

"I can show you, if you want," [Y/n] replied, unfazed, taking a determined step closer to his father, scissors in hand. "Those red lines are running all over your body too, Father."

"You... How dare you propose such a thing—?!" Despite his fury, his father's bravado faltered, and he took a hesitant step back, retreating from his own son.

[Y/n] smiled sweetly. He knows... something inside him didn't seem to be right. Something inside him had definitely changed alongside the emergence of these new eyes of his — As if the sensation of his eyeballs splitting in two with every blink wasn't mortifying enough.

But he pushed those concerns aside, because right now, there was something wonderful he could show his father. Not to make his father proud of him. No. [Y/n] had given up on that specific thing long ago. So, this time—

"We can start with the lines on your right arm, Father. Those lines are the shortest, so I can trace them the easiest."

That was a lie.