Rearranging Fate | Tokyo Revengers x OC

95 • Dethronement

"So, you've only been Nagarei for, like, a year? Two years? Since 2004, right?"

"Hmm..." Humming, she shrugged. "I guess so? It felt longer than I thought...maybe 'cus I counted by the years and not months."

"Just because you started something in December doesn't mean you've been doing it for a year in January."

"It totally does," she retorted with a huff, glad that Izana seemed to have at least calmed down, if the way he was dragging her through the brothel halls wasn't telling enough. "Thinking about it now, there could've been a better way to do this other than me pretending to be a boy and whatever."

Izana would like to point out that they wouldn't have, in fact, met if Reina hadn't taken the Nagarei route. As funny as it was for fate to destine them to meet this way, he was grateful, nonetheless. Because at the very least, he wasn't that alone. But he would keep his mouth shut from saying such sappy crap.

"Izana, Reina," the bone-chilling voice of that woman called out just before they could reach the front doors. Two impassive faces glared at the woman who was leaning against the wall at the foot of the stairs with a cigarette in her mouth. "Leaving?"

Reina didn't want this. She didn't want to see, hear, or even think of Miriam. She wanted to live as if she never knew of Miriam's existence. She wanted to be ignorant.

But ignorance was only bliss because it was a lie.

"You know, I planned on giving you...a compensation of sorts, the minimum gratitude I can show you for giving birth to us," Reina said instead. "Shiki kept you here to use you as a hostage in case he ever needs it, but you're not chained to this country anymore." Letting go of Izana's hand, she stepped forward and pulled out a thick envelope from her sling bag.

Not caring whether she caught it or not, Reina dropped the envelope and walked past her mother. "I hope I never see you again." This time, she hoped it would be the very last.

"Shall I give you two some advice?" Miriam asked rhetorically, tucking the envelope into her shirt as she leaned back against the wall, between her son and her daughter. Her son, who was looking at her his sister, her daughter who didn't bother turning around to look at her. Placing the cigarette back in her mouth, she exhaled smoke with a sigh. "Not as your mother, but as a person?"

One child had her hand clenched around the door handle while the other had his hand clenched around the railings of the stairs, neither looking at the woman who birthed them, but neither making a move to dismiss her either. Miriam took that as a cue to take another drag and start speaking.

"Don't fall in love." Ashes fell onto the carpet, the red glow dimming quickly as she took another drag, ignoring the way two pairs of eyes now stared at her. "My parents...my brother...my sister...my friends...and myself...many say my life would've been better had I not loved him, yet I let my love for that pathetic man be my ruin." She huffed, sneering at her own life. "After all, this worthless 'love' is why I'm rotting away here."

More ashes burned the carpet as she glanced at the boy she could've called her son. "They say love gives you happiness, things that can't be bought, a priceless gem hidden between rocks." Her eyes shifted to her daughter. "But love isn't black and white. It turns you into a happy slave and by the time you realize you're a slave, it's too late to get out. Damned to forever be a slave."

Clicking her tongue, she squashed the cigarette, smoke coming out of the gap between her clenched fingers. "I suppose I should've fallen for someone richer if I were to devote my entire life to it." She unclenched her hand, and the crushed cigarette fell to the carpet. "At the very least, I could've stolen something before getting cast aside."