KUGISAKI NOBARA AIDS KASUMI MIWA.
with the curse defeated: the curtain over the area and surrounding radius lifts before long and darkness melts away, the air more breathable now that the malignant residuals of the curse lingering have dissipated, and what’s more is that they’re alive.
after enough battle aftermaths wherein she’d promise herself to become strong enough so as not to end back up in ieiri-san’s care, nobara’s come out of this one minimally unscathed, but kasumi …
kasumi had been more the more injured party between them and nobara noticed this. she noticed this because kasumi is piss poor at trying to hide it, her walk next to nobara’s stiff and draggingly limp — yet she forged on with a smile, bearing the pain and burying the would-be worry for nobara’s sake. kasumi wanted to appear strong then and she wants to appear strong even now in the aftermath, even if she hadn’t been as strong as she promised herself to be in the fight:
strong enough not to burden nobara, strong enough not to laden her with worry, but in becoming injured by the curse and having been found out? she had anyway.
it’s easy to make promises for others’ sakes, but it’s harder to keep them, nobara understands this. she understands pain, how to inflict it and how it is inflicted, and what’s more is that she understands the pain of broken promises.
unbeknownst to kasumi, breaking a little of her own promise to herself, nobara is injured too. pain blooms across her chest and even though she’s injured, her promise to herself had been stronger than the curse so she moves like she’s fine. she looks behind to see kasumi lagging a bit, the blue-haired girl throwing up a hand to wave and a reassuring smile.
i’m fine, she tells nobara in these two gestures, go on without me. “ i’m fine, ” she says, as if saying it’ll make nobara believe her even more. kasumi does not look fine and her cursed energy does not feel fine.
“ bullshit, ” nobara retorts again, voice clipped. “ don’t give me that when we both know you aren’t. you can lie to yourself, but you’re not lyin’ to me. ” having doubled back rather than slowing down to let kasumi catch up, an arm put around her shoulder, she supports her weight as they walk together now.
“ i’m not leavin’ you either, so quit it with that! just hang on a little bit longer, okay? ”