Forget Me Not (Discontinued)

Chapter Fourteen: Sides

Soon more people show up in the monitor room; a lovely woman with silver hair, an older man who can't stop glaring at Satoru for some reason, and the principal of the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School; despite the principal's tall and very masculine appearance, he also gives off a strangely cute energy as well.

"Oh my~ is this the infamous new leader of the Kubo clan?" The silver haired woman asks as she approaches me. She offers me her hand, "I'm Mei Mei, and you must be Takara Kubo and the guy over there must be Chiko Kubo."

I first shake her hand before reaching for my white board to ask her, How do you know about us?

"Everyone knows about you. For a long time while you, your brother and your mother disappeared your grandmother looked for you. She offered quite the reward to bring you back to her. Too bad it would seem that the situation solved itself, could've used some of that reward money."

"Mei Mei lay off the new girl, she hasn't been apart of our world that long." The Tokyo principal cuts in, "But I gotta say I'm a little surprised you chose her to be your bride. Didn't even think you would actually choose a bride." He looks directly at Satoru.

"Originally I wasn't going to choose anyone. Thought about wasting my mother's time...but marrying Takara was simply too irresistible. I mean you won't believe how many people we've pissed off with our union." He smirks before wrapping an arm around me.

"So basically you married my sister to get a rise out of people. Nice. Real nice." Chiko comments.

"That wasn't the only reason." He smiles at me. I can't help but give a slight smile back at him.

"What an interesting girl. Why not promote her to Grade-2 already?" Mei Mei says, pulling our attention back to the monitors.

I had assumed Maki was already Grade-2 or at the very least Grade-3 judging by her skills alone. I turn to Satoru ask, She's not already Grade-2?

"Oh I forgot that you're new to Jujutsu politics. Maki is a Grade-4." He answers me.

I become utterly confused by this, How? She's obviously far above that skill level. 

"That would be thanks to her family...the Zenin family." 

For once I get angry, Why? That's completely stupid. Fucking Zenin.

Satoru glances at me with an amused smile, "Oh my, I've never seen you get this worked up. You seem to have taken quite a liking to my darling students."

They're your students, of course I like them. Besides that, it's just a waste of talent to keep holding her back.

He smiles at me and pulls me in close to kiss the top of my head, "I knew choosing you would be fun."

"Oh my god get a room." Mei Mei groans loudly.

Satoru leans back and looks at Mei Mei, "I can't help but notice that the video feed on Yuji seems to be a little inconsistent."

"Well animals will be animals. Besides it's tiring to share their view for too long." She casually explains away. 

"Hmm...are you sure about that? Question for ya, whose side are you on Mei?" Satoru asks, obviously sensing something in her words that I'm not.

She smirks, "Whose side? I'm on the side of money, of course. There's no value in something that can't be bought...since that can't be exchanged for money." 

"Spoken from experience." He retorts. Suddenly a slip of paper burns on the wall. "We got some action."

We watch the monitors and notice that most of the students are fighting each other instead of trying to hunt down curses. 

Satoru shakes his head, "All these one-on-ones...did they forget their real objective."

"Why can't they get along?" Utahime asks no one in particular. 

"Maybe they get that from you, Utahime." He snarks.

She rolls her eyes, "The only person I don't get along with is you."

The entire time we've all been conversing, I've been doing my own little recon through my shikigami. I go between being in my body and looking through my snake shiki's eyes as he aimlessly wanders around the field. Given Mei Mei's answers to Satoru's questions, I decide to keep my distance from her ravens. Although I'm confident in my abilities to mask my shikigami's presence, I rather not run the risk and get in trouble. Unlike most curse users, I know how to make my shiki perfectly mimic a snake; all the way down to how much cursed energy it puts out.

"Baby, wanna get some snacks?" Satoru asks me all of a sudden. I nod and follow him out into the hallway; as we're walking towards the vending machines, he says, "Impressive shikigami by the way. I almost thought it was just a normal snake."

You knew? I sign to him.

"The only reason I could tell is thanks to six eyes. Don't worry no one else can tell. But I need to ask a favor..."

Anything.

"Follow Yuji and just keep an eye on him. I don't think they're gonna take him out that easily but just tell me if anything interesting happens." I nod and he smiles, "Thanks, now pick whatever you want."

He slips the money in and I look at him in disbelief, Anything I want?

"Yep. Whatever you want." I press a bunch of buttons for sweet and salty snacks and a milk tea. He carries everything, "So how is it that you know the salty and sweet rule but you don't understand flirting?"

My mom firmly believed in the salty and sweet rule. As for flirting, I just don't have any experience with it and in general don't understand it. I explain to him.

"Was she even able to implement the salty and sweet rule out in the woods?" He asks.

Not as much as she wanted. But sometimes there were wild berries or she stole peaches from a nearby farmer. It wasn't normal but it was fun in a way.

"It does kind of sound like a nice way to live...far away from Jujutsu society and living on your own terms. In some ways I'm sort of envious."

Envious? I look at him, wondering what he could ever be jealous of.

"Yeah. Some days this world really makes me wanna run away into the woods and be a hermit."

Why don't you? I ask, stopping short of the door.

"I want to change it so idiots like the Zenin don't have power over strong sorcerers like Maki. A society built on strength rather than rules and tradition."

Then I'll help you if you want. Even if you don't need help, I'll cheer you on.

His entire face turns red, "God you keep turning me into a mess."