Forget Me Not (Discontinued)

Chapter Thirteen: Unspoken Memories

"What're you doing hiding from everyone?" I ask the small girl hiding in the bushes near the traditional Japanese mansion.

She looks up and her yellow eyes meet mine; I take note of the many bruises on her body. "I-I'm sorry for bothering you! I'll go!" She spits out before quickly standing up.

"No. That's not why I asked. I want to know why you're hiding from the main hall. Aren't you here for the celebrations?" I ask the scared girl again.

"I am...but my father told me to stay out of sight. My presence would bring upon too many questions." She replies.

I study her body language; judging by the way she's shaking, she's clearly scared of whoever her father is. "Did he hurt you?"

"What?" She asks me in disbelief; her eyes are wide as though this is the first time anyone has asked her this.

"Your father...did he hurt you?" I ask again.

She looks to the ground, "Yes..."

"Why don't you hurt him?" I ask her, to gage whether she is worth my time.

"It's not like I haven't thought of that...but I don't want to be separated from my brother by becoming a curse user. My mother said we would become weak if we don't work side by side."

This sounds a lot like... "Twins?"

"Yeah. I'm the older twin. So if I was separated from him it would only weaken us...and then I might be forced to kill him in order to keep my powers. Which would all defeat the purpose of harming my father."

I find myself slightly fascinated by this girl; she's the first person my age that I have met to consider fighting back an adult who stands in her way. "What's your name?"

"Takara Kubo...and you?"

⛩⛩⛩Present Day⛩⛩⛩

I look over at my soon to be wife as she watches the monitors showing the event. There are several reasons why I took Takara as my fiancé...one of them is a very painful reason. Outside of pissing off my mother and Jujutsu society in general; the other, and possibly the most important reason I proposed to her, is that I've been waiting for years on her return. However, it would seem that she doesn't remember me at all. If only that fucking bastard didn't beat her so badly that she now suffers from dysarthria and possibly memory loss.

"I'm gonna head over to the vending machine, does anyone want anything?" Chiko offers to us. 

Green tea. Takara signs to her brother.

"Barley tea for me." Utahime calls after him.

It occurs to me that Chiko might be able to fill in the gaps. "I'll come with you."

I follow after Chiko into the hallway and immediately I cut to the chase, "Does Takara suffer from memory loss?"

He stops in his tracks, "...so you didn't forget my sister."

"I'm taking that as a yes. What exactly does she remember?"

"She only remembers flashes of the night our mother killed that fucking bastard. She doesn't remember anything else before that...when we were younger you were all she ever talked about. You were one of the few friends she had, so thank you for giving her something to smile about back then." He bows to me.

I walk over and pat his head, "Please stand up, I feel super weird about my future brother in law bowing to me." He straightens his back and looks me in the eye. "Ya know she talked about you a lot...but probably not as much as me."

"You really are insufferable." He sighs while walking over to the vending machine. I watch carefully before I press the strawberry milk button twice; he glares at me, "Really?"

"I'm a growing boy, I need extra sugar." I cheekily reply. He buys a barley and green tea, "Aw look at you being the gentlemen and getting all the girls something to drink."

"It's called being courteous of those around you, maybe try it sometime."

"Or are you in love with miss Utahime."

I look at him to gage his reaction and it is priceless; his face is as red as a tomato and his mouth is agape as he tries to search for a refute. "I-I am not in love with her!!! It's...it's just that it would be rude not to bring her something after offering to get her a drink is all."

"So short tempered and 'spirited' women are your type...interesting." I continue to ruthlessly tease Chiko.

"Shut up man! I don't get why my sister thinks you're so great."

My heart quickens at this information; so she does talk about me. But I manage to not let my excitement show before retorting, "Uh yeah because I am great." 

"Yeah a great pain in the ass." He comments as he opens the door to the monitor room.

I take down my blindfold to look at Takara fully; I can see her hand movements with the blindfold on since I have six eyes but I like looking at her fully. I like seeing her golden eyes shift and change with unusual emotions behind them. People don't normally look at me the way she does; most people within the Jujutsu world look at me with thinly veiled jealousy or just outright hatred. People in the human world just see a pretty face. But the way Takara looks at me is different; it's warm and kind with a twist of curiosity. I suppose I now understand what inner beauty is when I'm with her.

"Hey snap out of it." Chiko says while handing me a bottle of green tea.

I walk over to Takara and hand her the green tea, "So how're the kids doing out there?"

I think Yuji made a new friend, it's very hard to tell.

"Of course he did. Who is it?"

That strange boy who called me Venus of the Beautiful Buttocks.

I grimace at this; it's not that saying my beautiful fiancé is a goddess is necessarily wrong but it shouldn't be followed up with asking her out right in front of me. "Yeah that Todo is an odd kid..."

Will Yuji be ok?

I pat her head gently, "Yeah him and Todo should get along. What do you think of my other students?"

Maki, she's surprisingly strong for a twin who's separated from her sibling. But I feel like if the twins either worked together towards a common goal or if the Kyoto twin died, she would be that much stronger. She watches Maki on the screen thoughtfully.

"Died?!" Utahime nearly shrieks.

"Well those are the only two methods for twins to reach their full potential with cursed energy. They can either work towards a similar goal like Takara and Chiko here. Or one of them might have to die in order for the other twin to absorb the remaining cursed energy. Twins are either one or nothing." I explain to the exasperated shrine maiden. 

"Yes. Our mother said it was something akin to a river flowing into a lake, when we both move towards the same goal we can pool and exchange our cursed energy in tandem. But if you build a dam or block the way to that goal then you have nothing." Chiko adds in.

I look between my brother in law and fiancé; I'm certainly glad that they went with the former option of working together.