Rearranging Fate | Tokyo Revengers x OC

52 • Hearth

Takemichi was dragged to Hinata's apartment and forced to reconcile with his (ex)girlfriend, which resulted in him breaking into tears as he asked her to get together again. Being the kind and understanding girl she was, Hinata, of course, agreed with a promise for Takemichi to take her out for the New Year. While that was all happening, Reina was having a reconciliation of her own.

"Hello...Mori."

"I thought I told you to never appear in my life again."

"I don't have to listen to you." Cigarette smoke was blown her way, and Reina resisted the urge to scrunch her face up. Instead, she bowed. "I just came here to express my gratitude."

Straightening up, she gave her 'mother' the sharpest smile she could muster. "Thank you for giving birth to me." Because Reina had decided to express gratitude even if she didn't feel any yet. "The life you forced me to live was shitty, but it wasn't that bad of a life. I even find myself enjoying it."

"Hah." The woman scoffed, crushing the cigarette onto the wall with a snarl. "Being sarcastic with me now? I gotta say, Reina, that's the kindest reaction I could hope to get out of you." Because Mori had abandoned not only her daughter, but also any feeling she might get from her. "But enjoying life? Are you saying you enjoy life as a crossdresser?"

"Why are you so pressed?" Reina asked mockingly, tilting her head to the side with an equally mocking smile. "I'm just using my body to get the maximum results I can get out of something." Because to Hokusei Reina, everything was an asset. That was simply something that wouldn't change in the near future. Besides, Mori was the last person who had the right to tell her that.

"What we're doing isn't that different."

Her smile sharpened, eyes curving ever so slightly as she placed a palm over her chest. Mori could ramble on and on about how satisfying her life was, but Reina knew what was underneath those sugarcoated words. That was why she knew that she and Mori weren't that different.

Mori's eye twitched, and she chewed on her cigarette. "Haven't you heard that parents scold their children because they don't want them repeating the same mistake?"

"That only applies if you're my parent." But she wasn't. Mori had abandoned and discarded everything related to Reina the second she decided to sell that baby to Hokusei Shiki. Just because Mori gave birth to her didn't mean shit. Reina would never consider her as her mother, and Mori didn't want to be considered a mother.

"Besides, what's the problem if I want to be both a boy and girl depending on the situation? I can get the basic human decency and freedom a boy gets and the leniency and sympathy a girl gets." If she could get both, why must she settle for one? Reina lived with that motto. "To me, gender fluidity is just another asset I can exploit."

Mori had a lot of things she wanted to say, but ultimately clamped her mouth shut. She had relinquished all rights to be Reina's mother the second she thought of selling her child off, so she had no right to tell her how to live her life. Whether the child ended up ruined or broken, that wasn't her business.

"I see," she said, lighting up another cigarette. "Is that all you want to say to me?"

"It is." Reina as she turned on her heels, stopping to spare the woman a final glance. "Ah, don't be mistaken. Just because I don't hate your actions as much as I did doesn't mean I've forgiven you, and I likely never will. I hope we never see each other again, Mori."

"The feeling's mutual."

Cold air greeted her as soon as she stepped outside, and Reina never felt more at peace with herself. There wasn't anything she could do about the circumstances of her birth, about who her parents were and who they dropped her off to, and that was fine. Reina had taken the first step into accepting that, and that was enough. The following steps would come by easier than the first ever would.