Everchanging

Grounding

!!TW!! Vague talk of SA, vague talks of cult, vague talk of rape culture, vague talk of suicide attempt

Kotoha has never in her life felt this genuinely sick. She sat in her car, her son sitting with his head in his hands in the passenger seat. Her thin hands turned pale from her tight grip around the wheel, trying to keep herself grounded. It wasn't working, her stomach crept up her throat until she couldn't help but choke.

She had thought Aya was a kind girl, one of Kotoha's few and only friends. The mother could have never guessed that her coworker would turn out to be....this. How could a mother hurt another child? How could a mother look at a child and see a lover? Kotoha couldn't rationalize it. Hadn't Aya said that she thought of Genya like her own?

But apparently, she hadn't meant it in the way Kotoha had taken it. Aya didn't mean that she thought of Genya as her own like a son, but her own as a possession. And Kotoha felt like she was drowning in rage with all the time she had spent bonding with that monster.

"Now, Miyano has already confessed to her crimes, so these reports are more of a formality. Just to give the case more of a backbone so there's no way she can turn her story around and get away." Sabito explained as he jotted down a few things from Tanjiro's and the other kids' recounts, but Kotoha could barely hear him. All she could do was stare at the bruise on the boy's throat and visualize her coworker, her friend's hands squeezing there. She felt ill.

"Wait, she's confessed?!" Nezuko squeaked, pressing an icepack on her bruised temple. The poor girl looks ragged, her mascara smeared all over her face. "What do you mean?"

"She admitted to stalking Genya Shinazugawa, assaulting you three, and sexually assaulting Genya Shinazugawa for over the course of a few years."

"Years?!" The parents all lunged forward a bit, their instincts telling them to save the kid. But they couldn't, he wasn't here. Kotoha couldn't help but wrap her boy into her arms, holding him close to her body like that would take away the pain. She knew it wouldn't, but she couldn't help but hope.

"Yeah, sadly. Honestly, we were just going to arrest her for this instance of stalking and assault, but she ended up bragging about how she abused the child for years." Sabito cringed, they could see the greenish complexion mottling his face. They couldn't help but feel sympathetic for the poor man, he was just doing his job. "So, I want to make sure she can't get to him again, ever. But I need your guys' help with that. I'm sorry, it must be hard. You're all just kids."

"No! I mean, it is hard, but we'll do anything for Genya if it means he'll be safe and okay!" Tanjiro leaned forward, his hands wringing in his shirt anxiously. Inosuke puffed his chest, scoffing in the way he usually did. It warmed his mother's heart.

"Something as measly as this won't make the Great Lord Inosuke falter! It is my duty as Genta's teacher to take down his foes." The child's smile was wobbly at best, but it held the signature fondness that it usually did when he talked about the boy.

"Yeah, if anyone deserves to be happy, it's Genya. We'll do anything we can to make everything easier for him. He's our friend, he's family." Nezuko's eyes pinched in pain, her father wrapping his arm around her in comfort. She couldn't help but hope that Genya had this kind of support wherever he was. The officer smiled, face soft and gentle as his lavender eyes raked over the bruised and exhausted children.

"You're all such good friends. You all are making a huge difference just by being here." Sabito leaned back in his uncomfortable plastic chair, his eyes flickering to his coworker for a split second as he sat down water bottles for the kids. "You all are a huge help; I can't thank you enough."