The Strongest Sorcerer of Tomorrow (Megumi x Arknights)

Chapter 60: Love is the Most Twisted Curse (End of Prologue)

Not for a single moment did he remember the faces he had saved, or the Cursed Spirits he had exorcised. If anything, everything that came to the occupation of being a Jujutsu Sorcerer had become a blur over the passing of three years. From putting delinquents who couldn't show a modicum of respect to others in their place, to fighting for his life in highschool, and then accumulating all of his experiences together in college; his life had been drastically... changed. Yet at the same time, it was also dull.

Glancing at corpses made from Cursed Spirits was no longer the deep sting of a bladed weapon created to draw living blood, but the dull sensation of a butter knife lightly scraping against his skin. Was this how he wanted to live, to do this process constantly over the course of his life, while the world continued to pass him time and time again? It wasn't even the need to catch up to modern society's development that compelled him.

To liberate somebody from a Curse was easy. To liberate somebody from life was easy. To liberate somebody from death...? Impossible. The Curse which had afflicted his sister was no different from death. Not even the Strongest Sorcerer could banish it from her body and soul, proving its undying diligence in stripping the thread of life from a human body. Many cases had occurred across Japan and nobody knew why.

He couldn't investigate it, nor could he do anything about it. All he could do was move forward, and hope that someday she would wake up, or for himself to find some way to release the Curse that had been afflicting her. He... he just wanted to do anything, to return to the normal life which he adored so much.

To wake up early.

To feel the wind across his face in the early morning.

To see his sister off, under the soft kiss of the sun's golden afterglow.

Ah... it would have been a blessing.

Drifting. He felt as if he were drifting away somewhere. Wherever he was drifting off to, he didn't know, perhaps it was a state of consciousness that his mind strayed to, one of the most tantalizing ones out of all the others. Deep inside, in his heart of hearts, he knew what it was. Unconsciousness, the greatest freedom that he could grant himself from this world, a world of respite where his body and mind rejuvenated itself.

It was... amazing. But despite the amazement and love that he felt for such a feeling, it didn't do anything for him or for the world around him. Never once has this succeeded in one of his goals, so he knew that it would be useless to desire to be in this state for eternity. In the end though, it didn't really matter, because even if he were resting or standing upon his duty as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, when had he ever been conscious?

He had denied reality countless times. It wasn't good for him, and he knew that. To live in a world where he could only see the bleeding chasm of the abyss led by a fissure's path, instead of looking at the path around him illuminated by a light, had made him completely and utterly lost.

...So, as much as he begged, as much as he silently screamed, as much as he prayed, and as much as he Cursed for his sister to wake up...

...He too, wished he could wake up.

DISMANTLE

He was awake.

All four of his eyes were wide.

A beast as pale as heaven's cloud stood behind him with a towering stature, eclipsing even his own figure in its grandiose majesty. It was as if light was reflecting off of its skin in greater intensity, proving itself as a superior creation to the celestial stars of the blue heights themselves. It bore the wreath without pride and without care, for a subjugated Divine General need not heed their own folly, but their Sovereign's own. The valley flowed its waterless rivers and clamored its moveless hands, in celebration of Mahoraga.