Mirror Eyes & Bright Blue Skies | Jujutsu Kaisen

Epilogue 1/3

3 months later...

"It's good to see you again, Miss Nishimura. How have you been?"

Ikuko sat stick straight on a plush, gray-clothed couch in a cozy room painted in blues and decorated in browns, whites, grays, and greens. Although she'd been coming here for several months now, she still couldn't seem to get her body to completely relax, fighting constantly to still the fingers attempting to fiddle with the hem of her sleeve or fighting to keep her gaze focused on the woman across from her.

"I've been feeling a lot better, Harada-sama."

The older woman pushed up her glasses, a warm smile on her face as she leafed through the papers in her hand, "Yes, yes, I read in your last email that the past two weeks have been a lot easier on you than any of the previous weeks. But you also noted one severe depressive episode that occurred during that time. Would you like to talk about it?"

"It wasn't anything special," Ikuko shook her head, "Happened like most of them do. I came back to my room after a rather... stressful mission. I'd absorbed a lot of curses, a lot of their emotions, and returning to an empty room after that was hard, especially since it was dark outside."

"With what we've talked about, I imagine it was. Did you use any of the tools I taught you this time?"

A nod, "Yeah, I did that breathing and muscle tensing exercise. Then I journaled, identified the destructive thoughts, and flipped them. I think it helped a little bit better than the pressure point one."

"Good, good, I'm glad that proved helpful for you. Now, if you'd like, we can walk through a few more exercises or we can continue to talk about how you're feeling and maybe identify some more areas to work on..."

After leaving her therapy session, Ikuko borrowed Ijichi-san's car to make the two-hour drive to visit her mother for the weekend. Ikuko never wanted to repeat the years of avoidance that she'd put her dad through, so she'd made it part of her routine to spend at least one weekend a month with her mother. With her father gone, she was the only family her mother had nearby, and it was hard on her. It was hard on the both of them.

Ikuko's fingers stung as she quickly withdrew them from the pan of freshly baked cookies that her mother guarded with a vengeance and a spatula.

"Hands off. They're not done yet, you little thief."

Ikuko giggled, "But Mooooom, they're the only edible thing here."

She was, of course, referring to the half-burnt pan of stir-fried noodles and the watered-down miso soup they'd picked at for dinner.

"Alright then, ungrateful little thief," her mother said, resting her hands on her hips, "How about next time you can cook while I take a nap on the floor."

"Hmm, you know what? I think I will. I'd prefer to avoid food poisoning, after all."

"Food poisoning? I prefer to call it, 'Food Resistance Training'."

Ikuko pulled a face of mock disgust, "Don't tell me you're cooking yourself this stuff when I'm not here. Haven't you tried take-out?"

As soon as the words, lighthearted though they were, left her mouth, she knew she'd messed up. Her mother's smile turned weak, following her eyes in turning to face down at the pan of cookies.

Her mother fiddled with the spatula in her hands as she spoke, "I should, shouldn't I? I've never been good at this kind of stuff. No, it was always Botan who cooked for us, and I haven't tasted anything like his cooking since... Even though I've tried."

The atmosphere grew solemn as silence hung between them, then it tensed with her mother's quick glance in Ikuko's direction.

Guilt bit at her heart. Though she knew her mother would never blame Ikuko for what happened to her father, it wasn't hard to see that her mother was in a constant battle with resentment to make sure of it.