Chapter Text
Fall 2011 - Summer 2012
Natsumi had never been very close to her family. It wasn’t for any dark or mysterious reason, they hadn’t beaten her or done some unforgivable thing to her as a child. As a general rule, her parents were kind and loving people, even if they were a little judgmental. Natsumi had just… never been good enough for them as she was. Whatever she did, whatever she achieved, didn’t hold a candle to her older brother.
He was several years older than her, a golden child in every conceivable way. Ichiro had been intelligent and kind, the perfect dutiful son. He was married with a child on the way before Natsumi was out of elementary school. His wife, Aiko, was beautiful and just as intelligent, and even more kind. She had always made it a point to sit with Natsumi at family functions and speak with her, ask her how she was. Natsumi liked her well enough, but… Aiko had always been a little odd, or at least, Natsumi had always thought so.
Sometimes Aiko stared at nothing and occasionally stared past a person, not really looking at them. It was always these same people that she seemed to know were burdened. An aunt who lost a child but hadn’t spoken of it in years. A cousin who had been hurt by another family member. Aiko always seemed to know when something was wrong, and everyone always seemed to feel better after they spoke with her. Everyone else accepted it as part of Aiko’s charm, a part of her inherent kindness, but it had always struck Natsumi as strange.
When she was younger, she tried to ask her, just once, how Aiko always seemed to just... know . Aiko had smiled at her and claimed that it was a combination of women’s intuition and the benefit of living a hard life.
Natsumi thought it sounded like bullshit.
But she wasn’t going to argue with her sister-in-law at a family function. Not when Aiko was one of the few family members who didn’t point out everything wrong with her.
By the time Natsumi was entering high school, she had long given up on trying to excel. She wasn’t as smart as her brother and she had to work twice as hard just to have grades half as good. Her parents loved her, sure, but they made no secret of how disappointed they were. Her mother especially, was always convinced that Natsumi could do better, that she wasn’t trying hard enough. All those times Natsumi stayed up all night to study must not have counted when she brought home barely passing grades.
It was so frustrating, to never be good enough for them.
If only it was just her grades, but no, it was everything she did. Every piece of her personality and existence was dissected and picked apart. She wasn’t as polite as her brother, she was too brash and too loud for her family. She spoke too much and said all the wrong things. It wasn’t as if she tried to be rude, and she never even realized how rude she was until someone snapped at her for it. It was exhausting, to try constantly to do what was expected of her and to still fall short.
Too much and not enough.
After so many nights crying, wondering why she wasn’t good enough, Natsumi gave up on the approval she knew she would never have. She stopped trying to twist herself into something that would please her parents, something that she would never be. If she was going to fail at everything no matter what she did, then she wasn’t going to waste her effort on pleasing anyone else anymore. She would never leave her brother’s shadow, and wouldn’t it be so much easier to just accept that? Maybe at some point, her parents could accept that too.
For years she resented Ichiro for it, for being born first, for setting the bar leagues above what she could achieve. It was even more irritating because Ichiro loved her, he doted on her, defended her to their parents, and told her she was good enough the way she was. He was, for all the world, the loving older brother. Even after she had given up, when she brought home barely passable grades and lashed out against her parents in every way she could think of, he still told her he was proud of her, that he loved her. When she ran away for a year, he never asked where she went, or why, he had just been happy that she was back.
Natsumi wished, desperately, she had appreciated him while he was still alive.
He died too young, they all had. Her parents had planned a family vacation for them all, they were all going to go to some resort to celebrate some promotion Ichiro had gotten at work. Natsumi just couldn’t stand another event celebrating her perfect brother while she stood there again, the family disappointment. She couldn’t hear her mother tell her to try harder, to ask when she would get her life together anymore. Natsumi couldn’t take being a disappointment anymore, to keep wearing the labels they’d given her, whether they said it out loud or not.
The family disappointment. The slacker that didn’t try hard enough. The unruly child who made mistakes no one would ever forget. The twenty-one-year-old that barely graduated high school and didn’t have the grades to get into a decent university.
She made up some lame excuse to get out of it, and her parents objected, of course. Ichiro though, ignored their objections and told her it was okay, that he understood. That he loved her. That they would all do something together after they got back from the resort.
How was she supposed to know they would never come back?
They had all died in a car accident. Everyone except for her brother’s child, Natsumi’s niece, Sumiko. Somehow, miraculously Sumiko had been the only one to survive. Ever the thorough planner, Ichiro and Aiko had left behind a will, designating his parents as Sumiko’s guardian in case of their death. In the event that they were deceased or otherwise incapacitated, Natsumi would be Sumiko’s guardian.
It was a cruel joke.
Natsumi had declined immediately. She could not fathom what would possess her brother to ever list her for something like that. She was in no shape to take care of herself, let alone an eleven-year-old child that she barely knew. She was drinking more often than she wasn’t and missed work more than she went. It wasn’t as if she had a decent place to live either, she could barely afford her shitty little apartment and it was barely big enough for her, let alone a kid.
Natsumi would screw up, she would ruin Sumiko’s life and then she would be just like her. A pathetic disappointment with no future. She accepted herself, she knew who she was, but she didn’t want Sumiko to have that same life. Weren’t there rules about who could take care of a kid? Surely there had to be someone else, anyone else.
There was... one other option. Aiko’s parents. They weren’t exactly listed in the will but they were blood relatives, all Natsumi had to do was sign the papers.
She didn’t know Aiko’s family all that well, she’d only met them a few times throughout the years. Mostly in passing, at a few birthdays for Sumiko and when Aiko and Ichiro had first gotten married. The wedding had been over a decade ago, but she remembered not liking them very much, not that many of them bothered to show up. The few that did show up, always seemed to be looking down their noses at everyone else. Their disapproval of the family Aiko chose to marry into, wasn’t exactly a secret.
Still... they would know how to care for Sumiko better than she did. Natsumi decided that she would sign whatever paperwork she needed to after the funeral and Sumiko would stay with Aiko’s parents. It was better that way. It had to be.
The funeral changed that.
It wasn’t some overwhelming sense of family obligation, because out of everyone Natsumi had been the closest to her brother and his wife but they still hadn’t been very close. She loved them and she was sad that they had died, regretted all the things she had never said (regretted even more the things she had said). She regretted that she wasn’t the daughter her parents wanted or the sister that Ichiro deserved.
Most of all she regretted that she had not appreciated her brother and his kindness while he was alive. She had been too busy resenting him for things he couldn’t help and if she was honest, she had been jealous of him. Jealous that he was so effortlessly kind, that he was so well-liked. Jealous that he didn’t have to try to win anyone’s approval, he had it just by being himself. She was jealous that no matter what she did, it felt like their parents would always love him more.
No, if anything, all of those feelings had her more determined to push Sumiko away. She was a spitting image of her brother with the personality to match and it hurt to be around her. It brought up all the feelings Natsumi tried to run away from, the feelings that had her running from her parents' home in the middle of the night. What changed her mind was the way Aiko’s family had talked about Ichiro and Aiko. They had gone on and on about how he wasn’t good enough and about how Aiko was such a disappointment.
“I can’t believe Aiko had the audacity to list that man’s sister as her guardian. It was bad enough she married one of them, but to let them look after her child?”
“Hopefully, she can make up for her mother’s failings.”
Natsumi was sure she wasn’t supposed to hear them, they had kept to themselves during the service much like they had at the wedding. It irritated her just as much as it had then and the way they talked about Aiko... it was just so wrong. They went on and on, about how terrible it was, how Aiko was a disgrace to the family. The pure disgust and resentment.
Maybe Natsumi didn’t have the best relationship with her family, maybe she’d never quite been enough for her parents, but they’d never spoken about her with quite so much vitriol.
After the service was over, when it was time to sign the paperwork Natsumi looked at Sumiko. They sat in some back office, Sumiko sitting in a chair between Natsumi and Aiko's mother. She looked so different from how she had before that trip, so unlike herself. Her eyes stayed glued to the floor, never looking up. Sumiko had been staying with them for a week, and already she was so different. Maybe it was just the trauma of it all but she had never seen her niece stare at the floor like that. She’d never seen her look quite so empty, so disconnected from herself.
“Sumiko,” she said.
For the first time that day, Sumiko looked up from the floor. Her eyes were puffy and red, but they were the same as her brother’s eyes, as Natsumi’s eyes. Natsumi had always been different from her brother, from her family, but as different as they had been they had looked just alike. They had the same medium-brown hair and honey-colored eyes, the same nose and chin. The only real difference between their appearances had been a softness in her face that made her look a bit more like their mother.
Every time she had ever looked at Sumiko, all she could see was her brother. In that moment, Natsumi saw herself and who she could have been if she’d only felt like she was enough.
She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t just leave her with those people. She couldn’t subject Sumiko to a life of being ashamed, of never feeling good enough. Sumiko had only been staying with them for a week, and already she was so different. Maybe it was just the trauma, but after the way they’d spoken about Aiko, she didn’t think she could take that chance. Natsumi couldn’t watch them tear apart this little girl, piece by piece, until there was nothing left.
Natsumi would not let Sumiko turn into her.
“I know I said that I couldn’t take care of you,” she said, fighting back the voice inside her that screamed she couldn’t do this, that she would ruin her, “but… if you want to live with me, then you can.”
“That is out of the question,” the older woman snapped at Natsumi. “You are not fit to take care of my granddaughter.”
“Yeah, well your daughter listed my parents down and then me. Clearly, she didn’t think you were fit either,” she snapped back.
“My granddaughter will not be raised by a useless alcoholic,” the older woman practically spat out. “Do you really think you can take care of her? You don’t even have a real home, you said yourself you don’t have room for her and it’s not safe for her. She is our family, we will take care of her.”
“Actually,” the man behind the desk interrupted, “she has a house.”
Natsumi stared at him confused. “I do?” She was momentarily stunned, whatever anger had been bubbling up replaced with confusion and shock.
He nodded and shuffled around the paperwork, on his desk as he searched through the documents. “Two in fact, along with custody of Sumiko, your brother left you his house. Your parents left their house to you and your brother, but given everything that’s happened, sole ownership falls to you. It was part of what we needed to discuss today.”
She knew that she would have to go through everything at some point, but she had never thought about living there. Natsumi hated that house, it reminded her of everything she’d run away from, but... it was a good house. It was near a good school and in a good neighborhood.
It reaffirmed her decision, maybe it was impulsive, maybe she didn’t think she could do it but Ichirio and Aiko had. She could take care of her niece. With the house she would have a decent place for them both to live and she would stop drinking so much, she’d get two jobs if she needed to, and… it would be okay. She could do this for her brother, his last request, the only thing that he’d ever really asked of her. She could do this for Sumiko, so she wouldn’t end up just like her.
She could do this.
Natsumi looked over at Sumiko again, there were still tears in her eyes and she was sniffling quietly. “Sumiko…” she said, reaching a hand out to her. “If you want to live with your grandma, I’ll sign whatever you need me to sign, but… your parents wanted you to live with me. They trusted me to take care of you.”
“You are a child,” the older woman said, starting up on her tirade once again. “My family is what is best for Sumiko. We will ensure she has a future. If you think I will stand idly by while my only grandchild is taken in by the likes of you, then – ”
Sumiko twisted in her chair, away from her grandmother and grabbed Natsumi’s outstretched hand. “I want to live with you ba-chan,” she cried, desperately clinging to Natsumi’s hand.
Natsumi hesitated for a moment, that voice in the back of her head echoing the same concerns Aiko’s mother. Instead of listening, she squeezed her niece’s hand and hoped she was doing the right thing. “Well... all right then. What do I need to sign?”
The man behind the desk shuffled around the paperwork again and explained every document. Sumiko’s grandmother argued and threatened to involve more of the family but in the end, it didn’t really matter. Ichiro had every piece of paperwork prepared and filed correctly because he was Ichiro and of course that’s what he’d done.
Everything was in order, and there was no legal recourse to take Sumiko away from Natsumi.
Natsumi, for the first time in years, put in a great deal of effort. She tried very hard to be the kind of person Sumiko needed, to be more like Ichiro. They moved into the house Natsumi’s parents had left her and after much debate sold her brother’s house. Maybe she shouldn’t have asked the eleven-year-old what she thought about it, but she did because it had been Sumiko’s house too. It hurt Sumiko too much to ever think about going back, so Natsumi put anything important in storage and set the money aside for Sumiko.
Things went as well as could be expected, but within the first year… strange things happened.
Sumiko was like Ichiro for the most part, but she could see some of Aiko in her too. She had her mother’s sweet smile and the way she talked with her hands, but that wasn’t what really disturbed Natsumi. It was all the weird things that Natsumi had noticed about Aiko.
Sometimes Sumiko stared at things that weren’t there and she always seemed to know when Natsumi hit a particularly low point. Then there were the times they walked together, the way that Sumiko would grab hold of Natsumi and cross the street, looking over her shoulder in fear. The first time it ever happened, a few days later she saw on the news that several people that went down that street had gone missing.
Natsumi couldn’t make sense of it and when she tried to ask Sumiko to explain why she had reacted that way, she had just shrugged her shoulders and said she had a bad feeling.
It was the same kind of bullshit answer that Aiko had given her years before.
There wasn’t much she could do about it. What was she going to do, call her a liar? There was no way that an eleven-year-old girl was responsible for so many missing people. She was a little strange just like Aiko, but she was sweet, and she was kind, just like both of her parents. Maybe she really did have some sort of sixth sense like her mother.
She put it out of her mind as much as she could, pretending that it wasn’t as odd as it seemed. It wasn't until after Sumiko turned twelve, just after she started middle school, that she finally understood.
Sumiko, much like her father, was very intelligent and managed to get into a good school. Before, Natsumi would have been jealous and petty and refused to go to any of the ceremonies. She put those feelings aside as much as she could and tried to be better, for Sumiko’s sake. It was so hard to let go of her jealousies and resentments, but she was doing it, or at least doing a really good job of pretending to.
A few months into the school year, children went missing. It caused panic among the parents and faculty, and Natsumi was no exception. She dropped Sumiko off and picked her up, staying until she saw her inside the doors and showing up before school even ended.
Except for one particular day.
She had stayed at work just a little too long, showing up as the sea of children made their way outside the school. There was no sight of Sumiko, but just as she started to panic, she spotted her. The relief she felt was quickly washed away when she saw two grown men dressed all in black talking to her off to the side.
Natsumi, while she had changed considerably out of necessity, was still more brash than other people tended to care for. She sprinted over to them, weaving through the slowly shrinking crowd of children, and planted herself firmly between Sumiko and the two strange men. “What the hell are you doing talking to my niece?”
The shorter of the two men had dark hair and was dressed in an equally dark suit. He waved his hands about, a nervous look on his face as he spoke. “Let me explain. We’re just – ”
“Talking to a preteen outside a middle school,” Natsumi said through gritted teeth. “Get the hell out of here before I call the cops.”
The taller man was more... unusual-looking than the other. His hair was white though he looked young and wore sunglasses despite the sky being overcast and… he was laughing.
“Oh, you think this is funny? Kids have gone missing,” she seethed. “I bet you have something to do with that. I mean, what business do two grown men have talking to a twelve-year-old girl.”
“Ba-chan, it’s not what you think. This is – ”
“Not now Sumiko, whatever they said, it’s probably a lie.”
“But – ”
The white-haired man finally stopped laughing, a wide grin still on his face. “Sumiko… is your aunt aware of your,” he paused, eyeing Natsumi from behind his glasses, “technique?”
“Her what ,” she screeched. “You sick son of a bitch – ”
Sumiko grabbed hold of Natsumi’s wrist just as she balled her hand into a fist. “No, she doesn’t know anything. I never told her.”
“Well, don’t you think she should know at this point?”
Natsumi tried to pull her hand free, but Sumiko kept a tight grip on her wrist. A tight enough grip that she couldn’t pull her hand away, no matter how hard she pulled. She looked down at the girl, shocked, she was so much stronger than she looked, stronger than a twelve-year-old girl should be.
“I didn’t think she would believe me.”
“You would have to tell her in a few years anyways, may as well tell her now,” the man in the suit said gently. His eyes darted nervously between all of them, as if waiting for it all to escalate further. “We can help explain since we’re here anyway.”
The white-haired man grinned wider, waving a hand dismissively. “You explain, I’ll take care of everything here after the kids leave.” He walked off without looking back at them and headed straight for the entrance to the school.
She tried in vain to follow him, but Sumiko continued her death grip on her wrist. “Hey, I’m not done with you, you little shit!” She shouted at his back, but he only waved his hand again, not even bothering to turn and look at her.
“Ba-chan, please . You’re embarrassing me!”
“Better to be embarrassed than in some pervert’s basement!”
“Matsuda-san, please . We are not perverts,” the man pleaded. “I’m Ijichi Kiyotaka and if you would just let me explain, we can get this resolved.”
“Oh yeah? What makes you think I’ll listen to anything you say?”
“They knew my mom,” Sumiko whispered.
“They knew…” she trailed off, looking back at Sumiko for a moment before looking back to Ijichi. “You knew Aiko?”
“Not very well,” Ijichi admitted. “She taught at the school here and I attended the sister school in Kyoto. Gojou knew her a little better than I did, I think.”
“So… You’re not perverts and you knew Aiko. Doesn’t explain what two grown men are doing outside a middle school.” Grown men may have been a stretch. After she got a better look at them, they both looked to be in their early twenties. They were probably about the same age as Natsumi was, but men their age never hung around young girls with good intentions. She learned that lesson too late, she wasn’t going to let that happen to Sumiko.
“I will explain everything, but we should vacate the premises. Things are going to get a bit… chaotic soon.”
“Fine, but we’re going to a public place, and you make one wrong move and I’m calling the cops. I’m sure they would love to know what you’re doing here, considering all the missing kids.”
“Stop,” Sumiko begged. “It’s fine, I promise. They’ve never hurt me before.”
“Before?” she said alarmed, “How often have you met them?”
“Just a few times! Gojou-san comes and checks on me sometimes.”
“Checks on you? Is he… is he from your mom’s family? Is that how he knew Aiko?”
Sumiko shook her head, “No but he looks after my cousin.” She paused before adding, “He doesn’t like grandma either.”
“Yeah, well… That’s the bare minimum I guess…” Natsumi muttered. She relaxed slightly, and Sumiko finally let go of her wrist. “Fine. Let’s go talk or whatever.”
Well. They were all crazy. Sorcerers and curses and techniques and clans and… they were insane. That’s what Natsumi wanted to believe, it’s what would be easier for her to believe. It would be so much easier if Sumiko was crazy, if she was hallucinating because at least then she could just get her help.
But the way Sumiko and Aiko had both acted, the way they seemed to stare at nothing… Had they really been seeing curses? All that time?
“Did… did your dad know?”
Sumiko nodded, fidgeting in her seat. “Yeah. He knew about Mom before they got married. That’s how they met. She saved him from a curse.”
Natsumi had always thought they met at a coffee shop, but she supposed Ichiro couldn’t exactly have told them the truth. “So… you can… you can see them. Cursed spirits?” It felt crazy to even say it out loud.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Why didn’t you tell me? About all of this?”
Sumiko looked away from her, fiddling with the napkins on the table. They had landed on a very public coffee shop a few blocks from the school, they needed to stay close enough that Ijichi could.. maintain a barrier? Natsumi didn’t fully understand everything they told her, but she got the gist of it. Or at least, she thought she did. The man sat across from them, much more composed than he had been before while he explained that he was… a sorcerer.
“You thought my mom was weird and… I didn’t want you to think I was a freak.”
“I didn’t…” she stopped because she didn't want to lie to her. Though, technically she’d never thought they were freaks. Strange. Odd. Weird. But never a freak. “I don’t think you’re a freak.”
“I thought you would give me back,” she admitted. “You didn’t want me in the first place.”
Natsumi’s heart ached, no matter what she had said after, all Sumiko could remember was Natsumi giving her back. Maybe the damage was already done and Sumiko would end up just like her anyway.
“That didn’t have anything to do with you,” she whispered, trying to ignore their audience of one. Maybe the damage was done but she should at least try to undo it, even if she had to spend the rest of her life undoing it. “That had everything to do with me, and my issues. I didn’t think I was good for you, I thought you would be better off without me. That wasn’t about you, not even a little.” Sumiko still wouldn’t look at her and tried to tug her hand away, but Natsumi held her hand firmly. “I mean it Sumiko. I promise you, nothing is wrong with you, it’s all me, kid.”
“Aw, how sweet!”
Gojou sat down in the chair next to Ijichi, lowering his glasses to the bridge of his nose as he leaned his elbow on the table. She hadn’t noticed before, just how… how impossibly beautiful he was. Natsumi had been too angry before, too ready to fight to really pay attention. Impossible was the best word for it because really no one had any right to look like that. He had the kind of face that should be in magazines and with his glasses lowered, she could see a set of shocking blue eyes behind them.
“I assume everything is taken care of? Where are the students?” Ijichi asked.
Gojou waved his hand again, the same way he had before. Dismissive, as if nothing that any of them had to say was all that important. “It’s all handled. The kids are off exploring, something about a noodle shop nearby.”
“You’re their teacher, you really should – ”
Natsumi snorted. “A teacher? Seriously? How old even is this jackass?”
“Old enough,” he said, grinning wide at her. Pearly white teeth as blinding as his hair. “They explain things to you?”
“Mostly,” Sumiko answered.
“Yeah, what parts did you leave out?”
Sumiko shrugged.
“You and your cousin.” Gojou shrugged his shoulders, mocking her. “Come on kid use your words.”
“Hey,” Natsumi snapped, “leave her alone. If she doesn’t want to talk, she doesn’t have to.”
“Ba-chan, please ,” Sumiko pleaded quietly. “He might be my teacher in a few years and you’re making a bad impression.”
Her stomach dropped, there was no way in hell. “What are you talking about?”
“Sumiko, do you like sweets?” Gojou asked her suddenly. When Sumiko nodded, he handed her a few bills from his pocket and pointed toward the counter at the far end of the café. “Go grab as many desserts as that will buy you. Take Ijichi with you, he’ll help.”
“I’m twelve not stupid. You can just say you want to talk alone,” she answered plainly but took the money and headed towards the counter. Ijichi gave Gojou a pointed look but left the table, following Sumiko closely.
Natsumi kept her eyes on Sumiko the entire time as she looked at the myriad of desserts in the glass case, Ijichi standing beside her. After speaking with him, she didn’t distrust Ijichi, not in particular. He seemed all right as far as people go, but she knew how quickly a decent person could prove they weren’t.
“Did they tell you about Aiko?”
“She was a sorcerer,” she muttered.
“They tell you about her family?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know them, I’ve seen them more in the last couple of years than I care to. Sumiko’s grandma hates me. A lot.”
Gojou laughed. “Sounds right. They don’t take well to outsiders having their kids. Even the weaker ones.”
She watched Sumiko point at a few desserts, turning to Ijichi. Probably ask his opinion or thoughtfully asking what kind he wanted. Effortlessly kind just like her parents. “Are you saying Sumiko is weak?”
“Yeah, I am,” he said, “but she doesn’t have to stay that way.”
“She’s fine the way she is!” she spoke too loudly, and a few of the other patrons shot her looks of disapproval.
“You’re so protective of her.” His grin broadened at her outburst, entertained with her reaction. It had been a long time since Natsumi had felt such a strong urge to beat someone. “It’s good really, she’ll need someone willing to fight for her.” He drummed his fingers on the tabletop, the smile still on his face. “Aiko was from a powerful clan in the Jujutsu world. There are two reasons you still have Sumiko. One,” he held up one long finger as he spoke, “she doesn’t have a technique worth the hassle, not to them at least. Two,” he counted off on a second finger, “Aiko was from a branch family, not the main family.”
“So what?”
“So!” he waved his hands wildly as if to emphasize the point she was missing. “You have Sumiko because they didn’t fight you that hard, because they let you. That could change anytime, and it might soon. There are constant power struggles between the great families, and the Zen'in have a habit of marrying off their girls to get the upper hand. Right now, they don’t have a lot of girls that are worth anything.”
Natsumi bristled at the comment, clenching her nails deep into her fists. Girls that weren’t worth anything? “They are not marrying Sumiko off. I won’t sign a damn thing.” She could not punch this man in public, no matter how much she desperately wanted to.
“You don’t think they’ve done research on you? It’s not hard to find. You’ve gotten in trouble a lot . Honestly, I’m not sure why they still let you have her. You’re a mess.” He shrugged, and leaning back in his chair, tipping dangerously backwards.
She really fucking hated him. She hated his nonchalance and the sense of superiority dripping from his every word. “What’s your point? I’m a shitty person, it’s not like it’s a fucking secret,” she said.
“You’re so testy,” he teased. “My point is if you let her train with me and her cousin, if you let her go to the school when it’s time, I’ll agree to keep them off your back. I’ll make sure Sumiko stays with you.”
“Why? Why would you do that? What do you get out of this?”
He flashed his teeth then, too straight, too white, too perfect like the rest of him. “What can I say? I’m a generous guy.”
“Bullshit,” she said. “You want something.”
“Does it matter? It’s not like you have tons of options.”
“We could run,” Natsumi said. “We have passports already we could just – ”
The smile fell leaving only a look of pity. It was worse than that stupid fucking grin. “It’s cute that you think that. There isn’t a place on this Earth you could hide from the Zen'in if they want that girl. I am your only shot.”
Sumiko was on her way back with Ijichi, arms filled with pastries. She’d have a stomachache later, but she had a smile on her face and she looked… she looked like a kid. It was a rare sight, Sumiko so rarely let herself be a child, let herself be carefree. Natsumi didn’t want to see her saddled with looking over her shoulder her entire life. No, she couldn’t run with her. She couldn’t force her to live like that.
“Even if they did try to take her, I’m not sure I believe you could do anything about it.”
“That just shows how little you know, and how much you need me.” Gojou patted Sumiko’s head as she dropped the pastries on the table. Sumiko tried to duck his hand, unsuccessfully, settling for narrowing her eyes at him. “I am the heir to one of the great families and the most powerful Jujutsu Sorcerer in the world!” he declared boldly. He nudged Ijichi with his elbow as he settled back down. “Tell her, Ijichi!”
Ijichi sighed, helping Sumiko sort out her pastries. “It’s true. You could be a little humbler about it.”
“Humility is for the weak.”
His over-confidence set Natsumi’s teeth on edge, she’d known men like this all her life and she’d hated every one of them. “It’s not just my decision,” Natsumi said. “If Sumiko doesn’t want to go, then she doesn’t have to.”
“What do you say, Sumiko-chan?”
She was pretty sure she could slam his face into the table if she moved fast enough. Natsumi resisted the impulse because there was a reason he was this confident, even without Ijichi confirming it. That and she was already getting dirty looks and she didn’t feel like sitting in a jail cell.
“You don’t have to,” Natsumi spoke softly to Sumiko, trying to bury the violence she felt towards Gojou. “If you don’t want to go to school there, you don’t have to.”
“My mom taught there,” Sumiko said. “She went to school in Kyoto, but she taught at the Tokyo school. That was her choice, her first choice after leaving them. She told me about it before she…” Sumiko’s voice cracked and Natsumi wrapped her arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. “I want to go. I want to feel close to her and…” she looked up at her, her eyes shining with tears. “Please let me go.”
She wanted to tell her no. There was nothing good that could come of it, it was way too dangerous. Those cursed spirits had been kidnapping kids for weeks and at least one of them had been in Sumiko’s homeroom. None of them said it, but she knew those children were all dead. Now Natsumi was just supposed to let her train to exorcise those spirits? It wasn’t safe, she could die .
Natsumi didn’t know if she would survive that, not now, not when she’d spent the last year caring for her. She had barely let herself know Sumiko, but it was different after everything they had been through. They were all they had, and she loved her so dearly, she couldn’t just let her do something so dangerous.
But what if Aiko's family did come for her? What if they took her and used her as some bargaining chip? A marriage and life that Sumiko wouldn’t choose for herself. A life with people that didn’t love her, that wouldn’t let her be a child, wouldn’t let her be who she was.
“You won’t let her end up... she won’t…” Natsumi trailed off, her eyes fixed on Gojou and the subtle nod he offered as an answer. “Sumiko gets a choice in all this, no matter what she gets a choice. If she changes her mind, you’ll still keep her safe. And… And you tell me everything that happens. You don’t take her anywhere unless I okay it. I’m involved in every step, no more secrets,” she demanded. “She doesn’t fight any of those things before high school and never alone. She doesn’t leave your sight when she’s with you.”
“That’s not really how this works Matsuda-san,” Ijichi said. “She’s already incredibly behind, and the best way to learn is through practical application. She needs to at least practice with lower-grade curses and –”
“Deal,” Gojou interrupted, smiling smugly once again. As if he had known all along this was how it would end. As if he knew that she would cave and he would win.
Natsumi only hoped she was making the right choice.