pomegranate ink | y. okkotsu

xxix

a/n: daddy's home 😩🙏🏻‼️

Ever since she had told you the story of her past with Toji Zenin — who apparently had gone by Toji Fushiguro by the time of his death, hence how she had recognized that he was Megumi's father — you and your mother had been closer than before. You were still nothing like what a typical mother and daughter should've been like, but you laughed at her jokes and helped her cook when you had a spare moment, and she listened to your problems and offered comforting words when you grew too upset about them.

It was nice, having a mother. You had never understood the extent of what the L/Ns had stolen from you until you got it back, and now you wished more than anything that you were a different girl, that your mother married a different man, that the two of you could've had something close to happiness in your youths. But it had not happened in that way, and so your only consolation was the one year you had had at the school, the year where everyone had been there, when you, Panda, Toge, Tullia, Maki, and Yuta all studied together and went on dumb missions together and made fun of Gojo together and did everything, really, but all together.

Things would never be like that again. Tullia was dead. Toge had lost his arm. You could only use Composition. Maki had slaughtered her entire clan in exchange for the murder of her twin sister. Yuta was a special grade sorcerer of his own merits instead of just Rika's strength. Panda's brother, sister, and father were gone. None of you were who you used to be. None of you would ever smile and laugh like that again. Even if you one day got over everything somehow — time would heal all wounds or something like that, according to proverbial wisdom, even though you'd place your bets on Composition over time any day — you would never be able to return to the innocence of your schooldays.

The first to return from the Culling Games were Noritoshi and Elakshi. Noritoshi had cut his hair after getting exiled from his clan, but Elakshi looked much the same, albeit with a few more scars on her face, most notably a lash mark running down the side of her cheek.

"It's fine," she said when you rushed to her side to try and help her. "You can leave it. I'll wear this kind of scar with pride; it's a scar of victory, not defeat, so I'm alright with not erasing it."

"Doesn't it hurt?" you said. She shook her head.

"Not anymore. Luckily, Noritoshi has some first aid skills, so we were able to patch it up with some good old bandages," she said, tapping the scar for emphasis. "Really, it's not a problem. I always forget it's there."

"That's good. What about you, Noritoshi?" you said.

"I'm alright as well," he said. "Thank you, though."

Around the start of the Culling Games, when the higher ups were sending out their execution orders and whatnot, the Kamo clan had found a new leader and promptly exiled the bastard-born Noritoshi. That was why they hadn't spoken in your favor when your execution was on the table — you were tied to a man they didn't even care about anymore, so what use were you to them? Staying in the higher ups' good graces far outweighed that, and anyways everyone knew at that point that the L/Ns had disowned you. Or, at least, they had until you came back and took over the clan, but that had happened later, so it wasn't a concern of theirs when your death was on the table.

"It's strange," Noritoshi said upon finding out that you were the new head of the L/N clan. "We've reversed roles entirely. You're the clan head, and I'm an outlaw. You're the one with all of the prestige, and I'm nobody."

"That's true," you said. "But I wouldn't say you're nobody. You're still Noritoshi Kamo, for better or for worse, and even if you aren't the heir to your clan anymore, that's still worth something."