Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

My earliest memory was seeing the newborn you stretch your hand out towards me. You were so cute with your chubby face and short arms; I loved you immediately.

My precious baby brother, Nanaki. I vowed then to always protect your smile.

I watched you smile as you took your first steps, as you touched an instrument for the first time, as you went to school and made friends. You smiled again when you quietly confided to me that you liked someone in your class.

I watched as your smile faded for weeks after your crush fell through, and your heart with it. You became more wary of others as you lost people you loved. I remembered how much you cried so much when Kuguri left. I vowed then to never make you cry.

When you told me you wanted to find the remaining pieces of our great-uncle’s song, I agreed. Of course, I properly vetted every one of the prospective owners to be sure you didn’t meet anyone unpleasant. You were so excited when I said I found the second movement and secured a meeting with the owner.

“Onii,” you called for me after getting out of the mahorova lobby. “Mr. Adolf was a really weird guy.”

I raised an eyebrow as I handed you a water bottle. “Weird in what way?”

“He was… eccentric, I guess. But he was nice and said he’d give me the sheet music!”

I smiled as I patted your head. “That’s good then!”

Eccentric and weird is okay as long as you’re safe.

But then you compiled all four movements into a complete composition. I listened to it and loved it—as I do with all your pieces—but a foreboding feeling came over me. I couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong, so I went searching.

Digging deep into the dark web, I found it. The curse that will take your life.

Pages and pages of “proof” were presented to me. A lot of the comments were ridiculous, but some were well-researched. These fanatics of our great-uncle dug into our family as a whole. Described what set him apart in our family of musicians.

They said this love of yours would tear you apart. You’d run yourself ragged collecting the pieces of our great-uncle’s song. You’d perform it and die from the overwhelming emotions, a freak accident, or by your own hand.

It was terrifying.

I chose not to believe it. I didn't want to believe that absurdity.

However—

When I heard your version of the Fifth Movement, I thought about it: you dying before me. The idea of “one last day” with you.

That won’t happen.

“It’ll be fine. After all, you’ll completely destroy any curse for me, right?”

“You’re making this sound so simple… But yeah, I would.”

I logged back into the forums to see if those fanatics had found any more clues or crafted more theories about this curse. When I went into the comments of each post talking about the curse, I saw the same username appear multiple times. This person seemed less like a fan of our great-uncle and more of an occult lover with the way they discussed the curse and linked back to older posts about it. Definitely the type of person I felt wary around.

Still, if they were this enthusiastic about the curse, they might have more information on it than anyone else. I couldn’t give up on a chance at saving you just because I felt scared. So I sent them a DM through the forum.