Work Text:
All of Maki’s senses were assaulted at the same time, the salty smell, the bright sky, the coarse sand. Was this a domain? Some mind altering technique? No, that isn’t it, she’d already be dead. Her eyes slowly opened to look at the beach, and to her twin sister beside her, “Mai?” She asked, slowly sitting up, the aching from her battle was gone, inexplicably.
The other girl let out a sigh, “You already know what my technique is, I can make small objects, little things, not things like this, so once I make this, I’ll die.” She said, “I’m already injured, and this’ll drain the rest of the cursed energy.” Mai stood up, walking towards the ocean as Maki sat, dumbfounded.
“What?! You can’t! What is this!? What’re you talking about!?” Maki asked, stumbling to her feet, “Get back here, we can fix this!”
Mai let out a laugh, “You know why twins are such a harbinger of ill omens? Especially for sorcerers?” Maki shook her head, “It’s because in the world of Jujutsu, twins are treated as two halves of a whole, two people have to share one domain, one technique, one lot of cursed energy.” She explained. “For most people, this means that they get half the cursed energy, sometimes it's more like a seventy-thirty split, and in rare cases it’s ninety-five to five, and the weaker sibling gets a technique called Heavenly Restriction.” Mai broke into a fit of almost maniacal laughter, “But me?” She could hardly speak through her laughter, “Well, mom always said I was a greedy child, I took all of the cursed energy, the technique, the domain, all of it!” Her laughter would sporadically turn into fits of sobbing, her tears disappearing into the ocean.
Maki was frozen by the edge of the tide, she couldn’t say a word. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? You know I wanted to be strong, to be powerful and brave and so I hoarded all the power to myself and even in the womb. We could’ve been a team but I couldn’t let myself share the spotlight and so neither of us got it! Like a child throwing a tantrum. Even with all my greed, I couldn’t get enough, even with nothing you were still stronger than me, and braver than me, and better than me… I had everything and you had nothing and you were still the better sibling!” She had devolved into screaming, completely losing herself to her emotions.
“But you… you wouldn’t let yourself be better than me, you couldn’t actually surpass me. You knew what dad would do if I let you pass me, if I let you get better than me.” Maki didn’t even know whether her sister was laughing or crying, the two emotions had merged into one. “Do you know what that feels like!? To live my life as a burden, as a weight just holding you back? Fighting everyday to improve tirelessly knowing you’re just skating by a little worse than me? It’s agonising! Why won’t you just let me be selfish?! Why couldn’t we be servants? Or even Grade 4’s? You had to push for more, you had to push me for more! I never wanted this!” She cried out, “We could’ve stolen some money and ran to Seoul!” Mai’s hysteria started to calm down, through deep breaths she let out a sigh, her voice turning quiet, sombre. “I always wanted to visit Seoul… I’ll take it all with me, the cursed energy, the technique, all of it, I’ll free you from the prison of Jujutsu.”
“Mai, this isn’t funny! What are you getting at?” Maki asked, trying to approach Maki, but she was stopped by Maki holding her arm out, seemingly trying to hand something to her sister.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be stronger.” Mai said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be… enough.” She took a deep calming breath. “But if I’m gone then you can be as strong as you want.” She said, her hand taking Maki’s, Maki could feel a small metallic object with a chain attached. “Promise me you’ll destroy them all, Maki. Destroy the Zen’in Clan, let me ask you this selfish thing as my final request.”
Maki held her sister's hand tightly, giving a nod. Mai smiled through her tears, she looked happy for the first time that Maki could remember. Suddenly, Maki was taken from the beach, still staring at Mai’s smiling, now lifeless face, their hands still locked together. Her own smile turned back to horror as she sat up, shaking Mai’s body. “Mai? Mai!” She yelled, in a panic. She shook Mai violently, until she saw what Mai had given her fall from her hand. It was a small pendant. She turned it open, to find a photo of Mai smiling on the inside, on the outside was a mirror that had her own burned and bloody face. A new fighter was born in that moment, a new woman. As Mai died, half became the whole, everything that held Maki back was gone. She had just lost her teacher, and now the only person she really considered family. With nothing to lose, and even less to gain, Maki stood to her feet, vowing to destroy the entire clan.
In the reflection of the mirror, Maki saw a four-legged beast, a walking mass of a dozen eye-balls, a large glob with only a mouth on it, curses creeping up on her. The mirror was the same kind of glass as her glasses. Maki stood up, when she was suddenly jabbed in the ribs, then in the back of the head, her body was thrown against the wall, it took just about everything to not drop her sword. She took herself back to her feet, all she had was a mirror to see the curses around her.
She moved the mirror around, to look at her surroundings, she was surrounded by monsters. Maki took a second to commit their positions to memory, before closing her eyes. She gripped her sword tightly, and with the image of Mai in the back of her mind she began to swing at where she presumed the cursed spirits must be. She had no way of knowing if she hit anything, that was until she felt the resistance of a cursed spirit against her blade. She kept swinging, with little pattern.
Maki looked back into the mirror as she swung, she needed a better plan. She saw the four-legged beast behind her, quickly Maki turned around wildly swinging her sword forward, before she saw another cursed spirit behind her. She turned again, with a more planned swing she was sure she felt it cut in half. Maki had to fight behind herself for what must have been two dozen cursed spirits. With a lot of getting tossed around, Maki spun around, looking in the mirror, and only seeing cursed spirit corpses around her.
Maki walked out the room, dragging her sister’s corpse behind her by the collar. Ōgi Zen’in was standing at the end of the hallway. He didn’t need to look behind him to feel her presence, no, to feel his presence. An aura identical to that of his own nephew, an aura identical to Tōji Fushiguro. Ōgi didn’t hesitate, he began to activate his cursed technique, “Blazing—” But Ōgi wasn’t fast enough, not for who she had become. Before he could invoke his technique, his head hit the ground, and he watched his body fall to the ground as he died. Maki simply walked past her dying father, still dragging her sister behind her.
Maki’s slaughter of the rest of the clan went similarly, it took little effort, even Jinichi and Chojuro went down with little effort, if anything she found it fun, exhilerating. Maki came to her mother, the woman looking horrified at her other daughter’s corpse. “Maki… what have you done…” She asked, stumbling backwards from her blood covered daughter.
“Mother…” She muttered, in a hoarse voice. “Back then…” Her eyes focused on the floor.
“St..stay back!” The older woman shouted, throwing a wooden spoon at her daughter. “D..don’t come closer!” She screamed, picking up a knife and holding it out in both of her hands, her whole body shaking.
Maki finally looked up at her mother, as the distance closed, she slapped away her mother’s hand, embracing her mother with a hug in one arm, and driving her sword through her stomach in the other. “Why did you tell me to come back?” She asked, as she felt her mother cough a mouthful of blood up onto her shoulder. Maki let out a sigh, as she set down her mother slowly. “I’m sorry I was such a burden to you.” She said, looking down at the woman. “I know a child shouldn’t do that to a parent.” She said, wiping the blood from her sword on a kitchen rag and leaving the ruins of the Zen’in household.
When the police arrived on scene days later, combined with the other crime scenes of the off-site clan members, they found the remains of all of the Zen’in household barring 3 individuals. Megumi Fushiguro, the current head of the Zen’in clan and only of the three surviving members to be cleared of suspicion, Maki Zen’in, the primary suspect, and Naoya Zen’in, the secondary suspect and suspected ally to Maki in the Zen’in Killings.