𝑫𝒀𝑵𝑨𝑺𝑻𝒀 𝑶𝑭 𝑺𝑶𝑼𝑳𝑺 ⇢ Gojo Satoru

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐗 - 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐈𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐖, 𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒

MIKAZUKI CHEWED ON HER BOTTOM LIP, gaze turning towards the deep cracks that ran along her arms. They were fine lines of dark scars, like cracked marble turned into skin that ran all the way from her elbow to her wrists. They bled when the gold required it, but also healed once Everlasting resumed its task.

"Is this why we heal so quickly?" She asked, her voice a mere whisper. "Did he steal their abilities?"

Himari looked up, her stare devoid of any life. She looked like a pale ghost with dark greying hair, golden blood soaking her gown. A wraith, a hollowed sorceress who had been consumed by the years and by the sins of those that came before her. The weight she carried was clear as day now, holding on to her shoulders like sharp nails digging into her skin, a reminder of the price she had paid to be where she was. The woman let out a hollow laugh, the sound carrying across the vaulted ceiling.

"That would have been a kindness compared to what he did." She let out harshly, the revulsion audible with each breath. "Midas' obsession with gold ran deep, Mikazuki." she exhaled, the sound of her granddaughter's name somehow foreign. "Far deeper than a human mind could possibly understand at the time. He craved it. Needed it to survive."

A strange feeling washed over Mikazuki.

"What did he do, Himari?" She asked, her voice feeble.

Himari's eyes remained sunken, her expression calm.

"You see, Midas was a skilled alchemist, but even he didn't know how to take the power of the Sun Tribe and make it his. He didn't know how to steal it – no one had ever done something like this before, not even the worst sorcerers in history had attempted it, fearing the wrath of the gods that would follow." She snorted, amused at her own words. "Maybe if Midas had been afraid, he would have chosen a different path."

Mikazuki narrowed her eyes.

"I don't believe in the Gods."

Himari remained still, her voice coming out small.

"Neither did he, and look where that got us." She motioned to the cut across her arm, the gold staining her skin already turning dark with the air.

Himari took a deep breath, pulling her hand out in front of her and flipping it so her palm was facing the ceiling. Her movements were slow, pained in a way, but not because of the cut in her arm. The weight was otherworldly, like the sins of her past were weighing down her every move.

"Tell me, Mikazuki; when you summon your gold, what do you hear?"

Mikazuki hesitated for a moment, breath caught in her lungs as the words echoed in the air. Her blood chilled at the sound of her grandmother's tone, yet the woman still yielded, a soft sigh filled with fear escaping her lips before eventually giving in and holding her hand out, palm facing towards the ceiling. The sorceress pulled at her gold, a soft incantation leaving her lips as beads of liquid gold blossomed from her palm, gathering in one large pearl that floated in her hand.

Himari looked at her expectantly, life momentarily returning to her hollow gaze before it was snuffed out again.

"Can you hear their screams?" She asked.

Mikazuki became pale, the gold in her hand dissolving into sand before she looked back at her grandmother, the meaning of her words slowly sinking in, the strange otherworldly weight of it filtering through her veins and turning the gold into lead. Himari smiled, yet her expression was devoid of any life. Mikazuki remained calm, but something tugged at her heartstrings.

"What are you implying?" She asked, already feeling another wave of nausea coming.

Himari blinked, the gold in her eyes shimmering briefly.

"The truth." she said, her tone as emotionless as her hollow golden eyes.

The truth. She said it like the word held some magical meaning, the weight of it as heavy as the lead now running through Mikazuki's veins. The truth – she said easily, like she and the rest of that band of vultures she reluctantly called family hadn't been hiding since their name was first etched into paper before the world map was even complete. The truth – she said easily, an eery smile on her face, almost like she could taste Mikazuki's heart shattering, like she knew what would come once the words left her lips.

"That night, Midas gathered all the people in the village, promised them good food and medicine. He holed himself up in a hut and prepared a large pot, melting all the gold he had stolen from the natives." The corners of her mouth lifted upwards. "When the people of the tribe came to get the food, he imprisoned them, throwing them into the steaming cauldron one by one until the skin melted off their bones and they became one with the gold."

Mikazuki's blood boiled with anger and something else – something darker she didn't want to identify, yet when the image of the cauldron and the simmering gold inside it flashed through her mind, the sorceress gasped. The golden blood in her veins, sizzling like that same pot had centuries ago, an entire tribe dying for the greed of one man which now lived forever in her blood.

Mikazuki closed her eyes, one solitary tear running down her cheek. She could hear them now – the screaming, the eternal agony in which the Sun Tribe had been locked forever, the magical prison in which Midas had trapped them in that night. She could hear it so clearly, all the people calling out for someone – anyone to save them.

Himari looked up, her stare now meeting Mikazuki's frightened eyes.

"He then poured the gold down the throat of his pregnant wife, burning her from the inside out." The woman scoffed, like this detail was somehow irrelevant when compared to the big picture.

It was, but something about the way she said it so easily broke another piece of Mikazuki. Himari continued with the tale, unbothered by the ill look on her granddaughter's face.

"Their child became the first of many, the first true Kinzoku heir."

Himari pursed her lips.

"That is the truth. That is the legacy of our bloodline." She narrowed her eyes, smile widening with a sickening expression. "Can you bear it now, heiress?"

Can you bear it now, heiress? Like this was punishment and she was the divine force imposing it.

Except, if anyone in that damned family had any connection to the afterlife, it was Mikazuki, and upstairs wasn't what awaited her in the next life. No, she was the Queen of Nightmares, and her throne was that of violence, hurt and vengeance, all of which she would not hesitate to show her grandmother first hand.

If divine punishment was what Himari craved, then Mikazuki would certainly deliver.