The estate was only a skeleton of what it used to be.
Where the kids and friends and soldiers and workers used to bustle around full of laughter and lingering smiles, it was now desolate. Every foreign noise, whether it be a creak in the flooring or the drop of a pan, was enough to scare you all into silence. It is dusty and gray without the hustle. The deadened trees outside and yellow grass added to the collective anxiety. With Geto leading his Hei to God knows where, he took your cousins, he took your children, and he took any speck of hope that you'd ever see Satoru again.
With the very sudden war announcement days ago, men and their guard (herding) dogs came to the estate to help serve you in protection. Yuta and Nanami swore that they were enough. But they could not protest the masses. And so, you sit with Utahime and Makoto in the rafters of the stables silently. Men were down below to keep watch.
Utahime notices that you are remarkably silent as she reads to Mako in her lap, but she doesn't comment on it. You both know she won't. It's been a week of silence from the outside world and you both know it's a matter of time before you fully break down, or the estate is attacked once again. Just a toss up of which.
"Three hundred years had passed, isn't that crazy?" Utahime asked him, and Mako nodded, absorbed in the words. "Urashimatarou returned to the beach carrying the box," she spoke, "only the view of the sea had not changed from before." Mako was fully invested, leaning against her chest and trying to piece together the characters on the old page. You thought of nothing except Satoru.
"He thought, if things are like this, I should not have come back," Mako said slowly, "you say the next line again."
Utahime chuckled slightly, then went on to read, "no matter how much he looked at the sea, the turtle that took him to the palace never appeared again."
He will never appear again.
Tears stung your eyes, but you did not cry. Not yet.
"Urashimatarou became sad. He broke his promise with the sea goddess and opened the lid of the box," Utahime paused for effect, "just then, a white smoke came out of the box, and Urashimatarou suddenly became an old man!"
"That's the end?!" the small boy whined.
"That's the end!" she confirmed.
"You know what the lesson of that tale is, Mako?" You had to set aside your grief for this one moment. He looked at the both of you with confusion.
"Don't listen to turtles?"
"No," you laughed, "that when you meet the most beautiful girl in the world, you stay with her and listen to her intently." He once again seemed confused.
"But I already listen to you and Utahime," he said. Both you and the other woman smiled at him with the look of an approving mother. But then he pointed a finger right at your nose. "I'm gonna marry you one day! I will!"
"You are?" you asked him with a poke on his own nose, "you'll have to fight your Gojo-sama for that spot."
"I can do it!" he says with defiance, "I'll have to fight all the other boys, too..."
"You don't have to fight anyone. You can marry Utahime!"
At this, he only shyly smiled before the older woman began to tickle him. Eventually, he pulled her down the ladder of the rafters and ran off somewhere to leave you alone, and you were thankful. Somehow, you felt it in your brain that Satoru was as good as dead. Buried in the snow, likely by the sword of a Zen'in man.
Your soul told you otherwise.
He's alive out there, but you could do nothing to find him.
You cried and cried in the straw of the stable, feeling like your heart got wrenched out of your body and feeling like half of you was gone forever. It was a conflicting feeling. You love him so much, he's half of you, he's half of your child, he saved you the way Urashimatarou's turtle did. And he's never coming back.
When he left, those two days felt like an agonizing eternity. But you knew he'd come back. By the third day, where he left you with a written I love you for all time, you lost all your hope. Satoru is the strongest, and he never came home.
You'd live the rest of your life in this hell. Your child would never get to know him. Would never get to love him, but know that he died going to war with your old family. He went to declare war on the people who had hurt you for your entire life, who gave another woman the opportunity to kill your blessing. In a way, Satoru died for his unborn child. He's perfect. You miss him so much. You hate him for leaving, for going alone. You hope that wherever he is, he's warm with the notion that a whole fief and all his friends and adopted children are fighting for your baby's life, not even theirs.
You wonder how many of them have died. You wonder where they are, how long the battle has persisted. Nobody has told you anything of battle drawings. Yuta doesn't know them. His only worry is about you. Nanami knows them, but he will not say.
You cry for hours, until the sun sets and Yuta is begging you to come down to eat.
You eat only so the baby can, but it disgusts you to do so. Even in your husband's absence, you are pampered while he is dead and freezing. You are safe while Megumi, Yuji, Maki and Nobara are throwing their lives on the line. You are safe because Yuta is only second to your Master.
If he came back, you'd throw yourself at his feet and worship him and tell him never to leave you ever again. Maybe you should have done that anyway. Thoughts of him plague you until you are in tears in his chambers. You shake silently in his sheets because you can no longer smell him. All traces of him are almost gone. His yukatas hang collecting dust in your closet. His glasses sit unused on his side table. His once messy desk sits empty as the hardwood itself seems to decay. The portrait of his father, who looks so much like him, sits abandoned against the wall. He never hung it up.
It seems he only exists in memory.
You miss him so much you want to die. You are not ashamed to admit it.
You lay on your side as you think of him, tears and drool seep into the bedsheets but you cannot bring yourself to move, not until you feel a trickle of hot blood trickle down the back of your thigh. And then you make a noise of confusion. Sitting up, you spread your legs apart to see more blood than you had noticed escaping your womb.
"No..." you murmur, "Yuta! Nanami!"
Without a second to spare, you're painfully climbing out of bed as Nanami wrenches the door open. "y/n? What's wrong?"
"Bleeding!" you tell him, but you're too stressed to properly communicate, "I need Shoko!"
"What?" he's by your side and with a hand on your shoulder, he looks around the corner bedpost to see a considerable amount of blood sitting on it. "Okay, we'll find Shoko. Just stay by my side for now."
"She has to be in the parlor smoking," you tell him with worry coating your voice. He can feel your hand tightly grasping his arm as you follow him, but the pain in your womb is unmistakable. "Nanami, I can't--" Before you can finish the words, you're collapsing on the ground and subsequently, Nanami's pulling you into his arms to race to said parlor. Your breathing quickens, you can feel your heart about to burst from your chest as you're bleeding on Nanami's arm. You know he doesn't care.
"Shoko," he calls into the room, "she's bleeding."
"What? Again?" Shoko immediately snuffs out her cigarette on the wall and grabs her bag of supplies from the table. "To her chambers is safest." You're in pain as you walk through the halls. Shoko is digging in her bag and Nanami is asking her what she's going to do. "Gonna sedate her."
"Pardon?" you shriek.
"y/n, you're gonna worry yourself to death if I don't," she reasons when you all step into your bedroom once again, "plus, by the time you wake up, you'll be fine."
"You promise?" You ask with desperation. She readies her cloth chock full of suspicious salts and brings it up to your nose. "Shoko."
"What?"
"You are certain?"
"Yes I am, now snort the shit."
Moments later, as you're sleeping, Nanami helps Shoko do her exam and watches her stuff herbs and cloths nearby to help subside the bleeding. And then the house shakes. And people scream.
"What the fuck?" Shoko shouts. "What's going on?"
Nanami scrambles up and out into the doorway. Jun is running towards him with numerous women and children in tow.
"We're under attack!" she screams.
Suddenly Nanami's blunt knife burns against his back.
--
Maki wanted first and foremost to cut Naobito's head clean off, but Geto sent her with the group that would storm the Kamo clan (not before she gave him some choice words about it). The Kamos are without a doubt the weakest of the big families, so it would be an easy task. They've got Maki, they've got Yuji, and they've got Nobara. How much more crazy do you need? They'd already taken out two pretty strong guys, one flamboyant man named Eso and another one who looked like an absolute monster.
Another man named Haibara is with them to assist, riding beside them on horseback. "Their estate is ocean on one side and a great stone wall on the other. They've got archers, and Noritoshi is one of them. But like I said! They can't hurt us!"
Upon the horizon, they can see the beach and high walls. The Kamo clan's fortress loomed ahead, its walls an imposing barrier standing between them and their objective: to render them completely helpless. Maki exhaled sharply, steeling herself for the confrontation ahead. The time for vengeance against Naobito might have to wait, but the impending clash with the Kamos offered a different kind of reckoning-one she would meet head-on alongside her new family.
She'd have to kill Ira. Maybe even the family head.
"Is there anyone else we need to worry about?" she asked.
"Just Choso."
"Who?" Yuji looked curious as Nobara held onto his waist from behind, the horses galloping not helping her hearing in the slightest.
"Choso?"
"Yep!" Haibara confirmed, "he's a bit of an outcast, but he's crazy strong."
"They're coming," Noritoshi whispered to his father, his voice quivering with apprehension. His gaze flickered nervously towards his sister, Ira, who sat huddled in a corner, her eyes clouded with confusion and fear.
Norinobu, a stern and imposing figure, regarded Ira with a callous indifference that cut deep. "Is surrender an option?" Noritoshi's voice quivered, betraying his inner turmoil.
"What they want is to kill your sister, I'm sure," his father replied, his tone matter-of-fact, devoid of any compassion. He turned to glance at Ira, his eyes filled with disdain. "I'll give those savages what they want. She's worthless." Anguish contorted Noritoshi's features as his father's words struck a nerve. His heart pounded with the urge to shield Ira from their father's heartless judgment. Yet, a sense of helplessness weighed heavily upon him, knowing the grim reality of their precarious situation.
Noritoshi fought the urge to lash out and instead questioned his father with a tinge of desperation, "What makes you sure they will leave after that?"
His father's gaze hardened, his expression stoic and unwavering. "Their thirst for blood runs deep. Satisfy their desire, and they'll move on. There's no reasoning with monsters."
Noritoshi's fists clenched, frustration and anger boiling beneath the surface. He wanted to defy his father's resolve, to protect Ira at any cost. But the grim certainty in his father's tone left him grappling with a grim reality he couldn't ignore. Ira, lost in her own world, remained oblivious to the impending danger that loomed over her fragile existence. Noritoshi's heart ached at the thought of sacrificing her to appease their adversaries, yet the suffocating fear of an alternative outcome paralyzed him.
As the footsteps drew nearer outside, Noritoshi's resolve hardened. He knew he couldn't let his sister become a sacrificial pawn in their cruel game. Despite his father's chilling determination, a newfound determination surged within Noritoshi to defy fate and protect Ira, even if it meant defying his own blood.
"We're not throwing her out there execution style."
"Then you wish for them to kill us all just to get to her?"
Norinobu's stare was absolutely revolting. It made Noritoshi want to throw up, but he figured that this might be the last chance he gets to protect his family against the strongest quarter of an army that declared the Kamo family no problem.
"Myself and Choso will take care of it."
"You couldn't take care of the easiest tramp in a whorehouse," his father guffawed, "what makes you think you can take on Gojo Satoru's army?"
"Watch me."
"No, you watch Choso, son." Before Noritoshi could move, his father pointed out the window down at the ground, as Choso's midnight black horse charged forward at the attackers.
The hooves of galloping horses echoed through the terrain as Choso charged forward, his dark eyes focused on his targets ahead. He rode with an almost supernatural grace, his black pigtails fluttering in the wind and dark blood scar giving an aura of danger about him. Nobara, Maki, Yuji, and Haibara, atop their own steeds, were hyper-aware, scanning the horizon for any sign of an ambush. The sense of impending conflict hung thick in the air, and a shout got caught in Yuji's throat when a sword marred his vision and skin.
Choso kept coming, his figure a blur as he closed the distance with astonishing speed. His presence was like an unleashed beast, a formidable force hurtling toward them.
The slash knocked Yuji off of his horse tumbling into the grass, but all he felt was the need to fight. Maki could see that, as his speed was matching that of the quickest stallion racing to its master, or in this case, his attacker. Blood dripped into his mouth as he neared Choso, and this was when Maki abandoned her horse as well, the rest of the Hei charging to the wall under the guise that we've got it covered! Her sword was out of its sheath in a second as she charged forth with Yuji to this mysterious man called Choso.
Nobara reacted next, her keen reflexes alerting her to the threat. With restless determination. Dust clouds billowed around them, obscuring the battlefield as the combatants engaged in a deadly dance of skill and strategy. They jumped around each other, a four on one battle with perfect strategy but somehow, this fucking guy slashed Maki on her side.
Haibara, ever a supporter, pushed her back toward the fight.
She trained with Toji for this. She could do it. She just didn't realize it yet. She'd get done here, she'd kill Ira and meet them down south for the attack on the Zen'in. She couldn't fucking wait.
But, Choso's face was filled with absolute contempt. She shouldn't get too full of herself.
"Did you all kill my brothers?" he asked, venom dripping from his voice as he jumped off his horse.
The four on the side of the Gojo family paused.
"The hell are you talking about?" Nobara snapped.
"You mean those two weaklings at the forest's edge?" Maki egged him on, her sword resting on her shoulder, "yeah, they're dead as dirt, so you should get ready to join 'em."
Choso only stared at her as his hands began to shake. A cold silence settled over the clearing as Choso absorbed the news, the tension clear. The lines were drawn, and the confrontation took on a new layer of intensity. The impending clash wasn't just a battle, it was a reckoning, with soft emotions and intense hatred intertwining in the face of inevitable conflict.
Nobara, Maki, and the others braced themselves for what would come next, aware that the revelation of Choso's brothers' deaths had added an unpredictable element to an already charged encounter. Family ties, a bond that should have been unbreakable, now lay shattered on the forest floor alongside their feet. The calm before the storm lingered, as the battlefield transformed into a stage for personal vendettas and grudges.
But Yuji had one more thing to say.
"But, your little cousin Ira? Tried to murder my unborn sister."
"Sister?" Maki raised a brow.
"I'm guessing a girl."
"No, you're calling her baby your sister?"
"Well, yeah. She's my baby sister."
Their minuscule conversation went unheard by Choso as the revelation bombed him.
His gaze flickered between Yuji and the others, the weight of the accusation sinking in. His mind became a battleground, torn between the loyalty he felt towards his fallen brothers and the undeniable truth that his own family could harbor darkness. Ira, his loudmouth cousin, a killer? The lines between right and wrong blurred, and the battlefield became a reflection of the gray area that surrounded them all.
In that moment, the forest held its breath, awaiting Choso's response, and the fate of those entangled in the complex web of family ties hung in precarious balance. Family above all. His family is the most important. His brothers' deaths needed retribution, yet the stain on the family name because of Ira's supposed action really put him in a tough spot.
"You dare accuse her?" he yelled across the clearing, his muscles pulsing with heat and fury even in the cold air. And before they could answer, without uttering another word, Choso lunged forward, his movements swift and decisive.
The representatives of the Gojo family met him head on. The landscape transformed into a picture of swirling dust and clashing blades. This is the fight that artists painted. The blood of teenagers marked the grass from another man's anger.
Maki was having fun like this.
Her sword was so close to his nose when they heard, "Yo! Soldiers of the Gojo family!"
At the feminine yet commanding voice, they all paused and turned to the stranger. She was tall and very clearly muscular, with long, blonde hair and deep brown eyes. She made Nobara's mouth water.
"Yuki!!" Hiabara cheered happily. "We're saved!"
"Haibara-kun," she smiled, a show of perfect white teeth on view. "What is your type of woman?"
"I like a dark haired woman with a smart mouth!"