misogynistic - naoya

chapter 7

naoya zen'in

"You still want to go?" "I do." Toji raised his eyebrows, looking at the kimono in front of him. "I am not wearing this." "Whatever you want. I am wearing mine." She took hers and went into her bathroom to change. As she came out, she was greeted by a laughing Toji.

"Oh no, take that off. That is so not you." Rolling her eyes, she adjusted a few things and looked at herself in the mirror. After all, Toji wasn't wrong. There was no way she'd walk around like this, ever, but what don't you do to show respect, even though they don't deserve it.

It did take quite long to arrive at the Zen'in household. But as they did, both looked like two murderous beasts, one was pretty dressed, the other's clothes were more casual. "We're entering hell, aren't we?" "No. This place is worse than hell." As they walked through the main gate, they were welcomed by the family. It was weird to see a whole big clan, with multiple couple of cousins, standing in front of her. She felt weird, mainly because she knew no one there. Feeling Toji's breath near her ear, she felt more comfortable, "I don't know most of them either."

They waited until one of them went up to the two to talk. They just greeted Toji, while Kayo stood there, waiting to talk to anyone. Overhearing a comment, she looked at the girl, "Who is she?" "She's your cousin's friend" That little girl was Toji's cousin? Seeing another girl, similar to the other, she smiled.

"She's looking at you Maki." Maki walked up to the girl and gave her a little welcoming gift. "I am Maki" she pulled her sister next to her. "and this is Mai." "I am Kayo Ieiri." "Ieiri-san?" Mai asked. Kayo only nodded. "Why did you wear a kimono?" "Oh, I wanted to show my respect to you with it. I appreciate that I can participate tonight." Saying these things a little louder, so that even Toji could hear it, she somehow got him out of a weird situation either.

When Naobito and Naoya came to Kayo, she straightened her position, refusing to bow down, making the others give her weird looks. "Naobito Zen'in." "I know that." Toji wanted to blurt out into laughter about this situation, but he couldn't. "Kayo Ieiri." "I didn't know that." "You very much did, Naobito-san." She gave him a soft smile and walked towards Toji, following his steps, inside.

As the women prepared food, Kayo refused and walked around in the court to meet the twins. "Hi, what are you two doing?" "Nothing specific." Maki answered. "Could we ask you questions and you reply to them?" Mai asked. Kayo just nodded and looked at the little girls. "Where do you live?" "I live near of Tokyo, with my sister and Toji." "Do you work?" "I very much do." "As what?" Maki asked impatiently. "I am a jujutsu sorcerer." "Wow!!" she was fascinated by this. "Do you see that curse there?" Kayo looked at Mai, she looked frightened. Must be a quite scary curse then. "No, I can't see any curses, but I can sense it. I know that there is one, I just don't know how it looks like."

Mai was clinging onto her sister. "Really? Did you know, I have only a little cursed energy and can't see any curses. But maybe I'll get like you when I grow up." She laughed at that. "I don't think you can get like me. You'll get to be your individual self Maki." She nodded heavily, "What rank are you?" "I am a special grade." "So, it is possible to be powerful as a non-curse user?" "I do use cursed energy, but I can't see them. But Toji, he is very good at what he's doing. You can grow up to be as good as him." "I will definitely do that!!"

Seeing the excitement Maki had in her eyes, it made her happy. Maki was different from the others. As well as her sister. Both were two strong women, the one protecting the other.

"Go inside, it's cold already." A deep voice said to the two kids. Toji was standing behind Kayo, handing her a pack of cigarettes, after the kids had left. "You seem stressed." "It isn't the best environment here." "It's not because of that. It's because of what happened yesterday, right?" "Whatever." She rolled her eyes as Toji walked back inside.

Leaning on one of the walls, she took a cigarette to smoke. Through the past few days, she had been more stressed than before, making her tend to cigarettes, using them as stress killers.

Hearing a few steps, she sighed and turned her head around, looking at Naoya. Somehow, their ways always crossed and they even started to meet more often and some of the talks they had were quite decent but deep down, both couldn't stand the other. "You're here because..?" She moved her hand to her mouth, smoking her cigarette.

"I've got a headache." "Thought I could somehow cure that?" "No, I want a cigarette and some rest from the talk inside. The same talk over and over again, it bores me." Seeing this side of Naoya, made Kayo interested, wanting to find out about the things he knew, making him talk. "Oh, what're they talking about?"

"That damned kid. Every conversation starts and ends about him. Toji looks quite amused about the fact that he handles everything the way he wants, but knowing my father, he will make me take care of this issue with Megumi. And there's something he's hiding, he won't tell it to me." Looking quite more confused than interested, Kayo asked, "Have you been drinking?" "I sure did. It's part of the meal and the only way to zone out of their talk." Laughing about this, Kayo turned her head back, sitting down on the grass ground, just like Naoya.

After quite a time of silence, Naoya took her collar. "Don't you dare tell anything about this to them. If my father finds out that I've been complaining about him, I will ruin my whole image." Pushing his hand off, she laughed and then asked, "What is it that makes you love your family?" "Who said that?" "You don't love them?" "Do you?" "What?" "Do you like my family?" "I mean-" "You don't. No one actually does. They just respect us because we are the Zen'in clan. Do you think their own son would like to grow up in an environment like that?" Waiting for a while, she opened her mouth to answer.

"You're drunk Naoya, you don't mean these things." How could he mean them? He would never be the opposite of what his family was. He was the same. Overconfident and misogynistic. "No, you don't understand it. I mean it. They really get on my ner-" "Naoya, you should rest. I am getting inside." Standing up to go to Toji, Naoya, who was still sitting, touched her kimono. "Thank you." She just nodded and went inside. There was no way he meant it, right?