𝑬𝑴𝑷𝑰𝑹𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑮𝑶𝑳𝑫 ⇢ Gojo Satoru

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐕𝐈 - 𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄-𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 / 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋

THE RIDE BACK HOME WAS SPENT IN COMPLETE SILENCE, with Edamura Hide sitting in the backseat while the Window acted as her designated driver for the day. Thankfully, the drive did not take long. Both the school and the Kinzoku Estate were located in Hokkaido, the Northern island of the Japanese archipelago, meaning that the retired sorceress didn't need to do any excessive travelling between the two.

The Kinzoku clan owned many properties around Japan, if not around the world itself. Most of them were palaces, castles and other grandiose buildings with no real purpose other than being used as headquarters for other Jujutsu sorcerers under The Magistrate's orders. They'd gathered most of these buildings over the years, some bespoke, others the results of gruesome conquests or stealthy treaties. Either way, the Kinzoku name spread through the globe.

Their main property – the one where they currently resided in – was known to everyone as the Kinzoku Estate. It was a traditional Japanese village, hidden somewhere deep within the wild forests of the Hokkaido Prefecture in Northern Japan. It had been the Clan house since before the beginning of the Heian Era, and would probably remain so for the next century before something more modern and sleek would replaced it.

The Kinzoku were the closest thing the Jujutsu society had to royalty – in fact, their bloodline had once had the pleasure and misfortune of ruling feudal Japan – and they were often treated as such. They were the natural enemy of curses, at least in principle. If cursed spirits were born of negative human emotions; despair, hatred, rage, then the Kinzoku clan had been born of the positive ones; love, hope, faith.

The thing is, even the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And even the lies gilded by age tend to rust.

"No." Kinzoku – formerly Edamura – Hide protested, her voice firm, unwavering.

Asahi took a deep breath, hand lingering over his wife's shoulder, as if debating whether touching her at the moment was a wise course of action. It really wasn't, but Asahi had never been good at comforting her, even after forty blissful years of marriage. It was as if he barely knew her at all.

"Darling–" He tried, already feeling the impatient stares of the clan elders on his back, waiting for him to reign in his wife, like she was something to be tamed instead of something to be let free and admired.

"No." She interrupted him again, unaware or uncaring of the hate-filled gazes that landed her way. "I will not have that child come back here; under our roof, with our children."

Asahi sighed, his golden eyes carefully watching his wife. Hide remained seated at the table, arms crossed in front of her chest, her purple kimono contrasting nicely against the ornate golden décor of the room and the black attire of their guests. The woman had changed as soon as she'd made it into the house; casual clothes were not for her, especially the suits she was forced to wear as the Headmistress of the Kinzoku School for the Gifted, a title she'd earned shortly after her marriage.

She'd always been different than him, which is why he had agreed to marry her in the first place. Hide was wild, opinionated, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind and always made sure she was heard; she had already spent too many years in the shadows, pretending to be something she was not, an unenviable position in Asahi's opinion.

"There must be something else we can do, alternatives we could explore." She pleaded, now addressing the elders at the other end of the gold-coated table.

Asahi grabbed her hand, squeezing gently before letting go and sharing a quick look with the clan elders. He too wished there was something else they could do, someone else they could call for aid, but there wasn't. Not in this lifetime, at least.