"Jul...!"
"Julius!"
I raised my head a little groggily. The coffee left me dehydrated, which made me feel icky. Definitely not helping how irked I was feeling.
"Yes, Teach?"
"Class is starting, and no sleeping."
"Oh..." I put my head back down, intending to go back to sleep. Maybe if I did, the pulsing headache that started to make itself known would go away.
"Julius!"
'Oh my god!'
My head snapped back up. I felt my energy moving on its own, cycling to my eyes. I didn't even care if any of my powers got revealed. The only thing on my damn mind was to get rid of this damn headache that was getting worse.
"What?" My voice came out colder than intended.
The teacher froze up, his body shaking a bit as he tried staring me down. His gaze couldn't hold long with it snapping to the ground after a mere second.
"Tch. Waste of damn time." I went to put my head down again, a pair of hands catching it and moving it to their shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Felicia asked with concern in her voice.
"I think. Guess I had a bad dream or something."
"Sleep on my shoulder, then. Maybe that'll help!"
"Thank you, love."
My eyes closed again, but sleep wasn't coming even after minutes of trying. I knew instinctively that I wouldn't fall back asleep. A deep sigh left me as I straightened up, aggravated that I was woken up for some fucking elective class.
"Um. If you had a bad dream, I'll listen." Mj was the last person I expected to try to help me. I didn't even know she heard me.
"Thanks, MJ, but I don't really remember it. I just know I woke up aggravated and with an insane migraine."
"It isn't because of..." The blonde in front of me looked guilty. I had to speak to get the thought out of her mind.
"No, Gwen."
Felicia grabbed my hand on top of our conjoined desk, locking it with hers. Her fingers helped ground me emotionally, but it still wasn't enough to fully calm me down. As the annoying ass teacher started teaching, Felicia brought up a reasonable issue that could have been the cause.
"Maybe you didn't eat enough?"
"You might be right, love."
Lack of food definitely wasn't the cause of the migraine. However, it could have been the reason why I was so antsy. Being hangry wasn't fun, and I had plenty of experience with it.
"Let's eat lots later!"
"Yeah, let's." I squeezed her hand back, trying to focus on her warmth instead of the irritation bubbling inside me.
...
..
.
The final bell for school rang. All day since I woke up, my mood had been on edge. It felt like I wanted to release a whole bunch of anger, but I was equally calm. The two different emotions were infuriating to deal with.
'What is going on with me?'
The only thing that could have changed was the fusion this morning after buying Sukuna's abilities. Otherwise, I really had no reason to be so on edge.
A sharp discomfort flared in my limbs as my muscles began to spasm beneath the surface, twitching with an unforgiving force that felt like my very fibers were being torn and rewoven.
"One se... no. Yes, love?" My jaw clamped shut involuntarily, a spasm pulsing in my cheek as I fought to force the words out through gritted teeth.
"You really aren't okay." A fresh wave of heat rolled over me, beads of cold sweat breaking across my forehead while my vision pulsed in time with the heavy thud of my heart.
"She's right. You look really mad." My hands trembled on the table, the tendons standing out like taut wires under the skin as another involuntary shudder rocked me.
"Did someone piss you off?" Gwen asked another question, but I was long since not able to focus on them.
I flinched as a sudden cramp shot through my bicep, making my arm coil tight against my side in a painful, rigid knot.
The three girls were trying to be there for me, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn't express gratitude. The pain was too much to speak, and if I did try to, I could feel that my words would come out harsher than intended.
'System, is it because of this morning?'
[No. If I had to guess, your body and soul are in the final state of fusion.]
'What's that mean?'
I didn't understand what that had to do with this.
[Remember how you got here?]
'Yes.'
[Your soul was strengthened, and your body is a new... was a new vessel that you inhabited, despite it being replicated one-for-one from your original body. The final stitches are finally healing.]
I clicked my tongue.
'Why didn't you warn me?'
[I was going to when it got closer. I wasn't expecting it to suddenly speed up like this.]
'Was it because of the spar against Reed?' I thought I was just breaking in my body to combat, but that was the only thing that could have sped things up. Clearly, buying abilities didn't help the process, so this had to be the only answer.
While I was distracted, Felicia's arms wrapped around me in the now-empty classroom. The other two girls were the only company left.
"What's wrong?" I barely managed out.
"You look like you're about to snap..." Gwen said.
"Ugh. Damn it."
Rhythmic thumping started at the base of my skull, matching the surge of energy through my veins. My vision started getting blurry, the edges of the room fraying into static. The world and I disconnected from one another with a strong urge to puke coming up from within me. Breathing became much harder, a hot feeling spreading throughout my body like liquid fire, searing the "final stitches" into place.
The pressure reached a breaking point, a silent "click" echoing in my mind as everything finally aligned.
[Body and soul fusion 98%... 99%... 100%]
My vision went black after that blurry 100% hit me.