Everchanging

Victory

!!TW!! Discussion of bullying/harassment, homophobia, SA/CSA, Aya Miyano (she is a TW all on her own), Victim blaming, Aftermath of gangrape (no actual gangrape is depicted), murder

"Gyutaro, what did you do ?" Tomoko watched her son fumble for something to say but, to be honest, there wasn't anything to say. All these months her child had been hurting the very boy that Tomoko had only just learned of, learned of the torment he was subjected to. Hell, she had killed for the child.

And that's what he was, a child. He was a boy younger than her own. He had only just survived hell just for Gyutaro, Tomoko's baby boy, to put him through a totally different kind of hell. And Tomoko never wanted to be angry at her children, she didn't want to feel the rage that had pushed her to murder in the first place. She didn't want to feel the anger that her parents had spewed at her when Tomoko was being led away in handcuffs.

Tomoko didn't like anger; it was an emotion that only led to pain and misfortune.

But she was angry as she looked at her son, the boy she had loved and carried inside of her.

"Say something. You're a man, aren't you?" Tomoko watched as the boy cringed, he opened his mouth for a moment before he shut it once more. It seemed he held a lot of confidence at school but the moment he was in front of his mother, he was a meek thing. "Was Ume in on it too?"

"Leave her out of this. Ume's just–"

"No, Gyutaro! You may think that this isn't a big deal, but it is." Tomoko cut her son off, crossing her arms at him as she leveled her stare on him. Their gazes only met for a few seconds before the boy grew shy, staring at the wall instead. "Now tell me. Was Ume in on it too?"

There was a heavy pause of silence where no one spoke. Touma leaned on the wall, eyes trained on his nephew with a pained expression and Tomoko couldn't help but share the same look. Gyutaro ruffled his hair angrily, his knee bouncing audibly before he huffed. He was annoyed, not because he knew what he did was wrong, but because he had been caught. Tomoko knew her son well, he had always been that way since he was young and it was cute then but now that he was a teenager, she realized that maybe she shouldn't have pandered to that behavior so much in the past.

"Yeah...yeah, she was in on it too, but it was my idea." He mumbled, his voice gravely and grown with years of change. Tomoko hated that they were separated by this panel, she wished she could look her son in the eyes. She wished she could feel his warm skin and remember when things were happier, before she was shoved in these dreary walls. "It's just– you haven't seen the news stories. You don't know anything–"

"I know enough, Gyutaro. I know enough to know that no child deserves what you and Ume have been putting this boy through." Tomoko could recall when her children were young and first starting school, kids picked on Gyutaro for his birthmarks that mottled his face. She remembered how her son would return home and bury himself into her chest just to sob for hours, wondering why Ume got to be so pretty and why he didn't. It shattered her heart every single time because, to her, Gyutaro was just as beautiful as Ume. His birthmarks and curly hair made him unique. Tomoko could lose him in a crowd and see him and think.

'That's my son. My boy.'

And he was so smart, way smarter than other kids his age. He could attune himself to people's emotions and, when he was little, used that to comfort his mom and sister. But Tomoko could see that that talent had turned into something more sinister, used to poke and prod at a boy during his most emotional time.