Nothing Special

Zenin / Family

"Well, look who it is."

As your snack for the day fell out of its spot in the vending machine, your usual conversationalist had shown up, a tad later than usual.

Satoru frowned as you pulled out your snack. "I wanted to get you something this time. I owe you."

"Maybe one day you'll make it here before me," you offered, moving over so that he could have his chance at a drink. "I doubt it though."

Satoru grinned, but it slowly fell as he remembered something that had been keeping him up at night. "Hey." You raised your eyebrows when he dropped the playful lilt to his voice. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," you answered, a bit hesitant with his sudden serious attitude. "What is it?"

"Um... how close are you with your family?"

Satoru took notice of the obvious way that you froze at the question. "Hey, you don't have to answer if"-

"No, it's okay," you shrugged, staring at the ground. "Um... well, cause I'm a girl, I've never been involved with anything really important when it comes to my main family. I'm guessing that's what you want to know more about."

"Well, actually..." Satoru looked around. It was a nice day. "Let's go on a walk and talk. I don't want to talk about it here."

You nodded and followed his lead, off of school property. "Uh, so when it comes to your family... like, who are you closely related to?"

"Well, obviously there's my father, Naobito. And my brother, Naoya. But you've met them, right?"

Satoru nodded. "How about that uncle of yours? High pony tail guy?"

"Uncle Ogi. And I have other relatives who are powerful like Jinichi and Grandpa Chojuro. Plus Uncle Nobuaki."

"Any of them have kids?"

"Uncle Ogi has twin daughters. Maki and Mai."

"Twins?" Gojo asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yeah. Although they're barely treated as part of the family because of Maki. She has little cursed energy."

Satoru stopped. You looked back at him since you'd taken a few steps forward. He looked tense. "Is she strong?"

"She's six years old."

His shoulders seemed to relax a bit, but his eyebrows were still furrowed. "Oh."

"I mean, she's definitely not going to be any match for you. Any sorcery related career isn't viable for her."

"Yeah, I guess not," Satoru mumbled, not really listening to you. He knew what people with little to no cursed energy could do, far too well. And the fact that it was someone in the Zenin family just put him on edge.

"Besides them, I don't have any really important close relatives. Most of my uncles don't have kids."

"Um, you don't know of anyone who's been shunned?"

"Shunned? I mean, a lot of my family... oh." Your eyes seemed to light up. "Wait, I know. An older cousin of mine, Jinichi's brother. Toji. But I don't think he was shunned. Well he was, because he was like Maki... but he had no cursed energy at all. And he chose to leave, I'm pretty sure. Married outside of our family."

"Yeah? What do you remember about him?"

"I used to play with him a lot." You smiled when you remembered that. Satoru wishes he could smile about someone who clearly brought you joy. But hey, he almost died because of the guy; he had an excuse to not be all that happy for you. "He was like... in his teens or early twenties when I knew him. When I was born, my father immediately made my mother have another baby. So, yeah, the servants watched me the most, but I was always told that Toji played with me a lot. He was bored, after all. And even as I got older, I spent most of my free time with him. Naoya was always really scared of him, so that was great."

"Why was he scared?"

"No presence. You couldn't sense him at all. Sometimes, Toji just lurked. I was even unnerved when he snuck up on me. You would be too."

"I was."

"What?"

Satoru looked at you, with a small forced smile. "I fought him. I killed him." He waited as you seemed to go through every stage of disbelief known of man.

"How did- what- when?"

"On our mission. He killed me actually. Almost."

"You're kidding."

Satoru laughed, bitter. "I wish I was. He killed the plasma vessel. The girl."

"I-I'm so sorry, Satoru," you quickly rushed. "I didn't think... I didn't know"-

"There's nothing you should apologize for. You gave me another perspective. That's a good thing. Um, the reason I wanted to know if you knew him... was about something he told me before he died."

"What- what was it about?" Satoru saw you hesitate asking that question. What you wanted to say was "Did he say something about me?"

"His son."

Your eyes widened. But it wasn't in shock. You pat his shoulder in excitement.

"Oh my god. When I was like 10 or something, my father took me out to Tokyo, which was surprising because it was just me- not even Naoya was with us, which was weird because my dad barely even knew me. But then, on this busy street, we ran into Toji, and um, they talked about this kid- probably Toji's- and Toji promised to sell the kid to the family for money. It was a pretty large amount, especially if the kid developed the ten shadows technique, which father was very certain would never happen."

"Why were you brought there?"

"I'm not sure. I don't remember it that well. Probably cause Toji tolerated me."

"I'm sorry I killed him."

"He tried to kill you first."

"Well..." Satoru switched the conversation back to the child. "He did say that his son would be sold. And he said I could do with that information what I wanted. And I'm not sure what I should do."

Satoru had just said two things that anyone would usually tease him for. He apologized and he admitted that he didn't know something. But he was vulnerable. And now was not the time.

"Don't let them take the kid. I'm a Zenin. And I know the child may be valued, if my father agreed to buy him... but just don't do that. He already has a way out of the family. Don't force him back in."

Satoru didn't always notice what went on around him. He was in tune to his surroundings in fights, but did not care so much to be alert in social settings. But he could tell by the look on your face, and the quiver in your voice; the Zenin family had put you through too much.