𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑺𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑺𝑶𝑹𝑹𝑶𝑾⇢ Gojo Satoru

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐗 - 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐀 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌

THIS WAS THE CLOSEST SHE'D EVER GET TO KILLING THAT WOMAN – not that the thought hadn't crosser her mind. It would be easy, so so easy to turn around, summon one of her daggers and pierce her heart right here and there. Would Hide's blood be gold like that of her husband, or would her true Edamura heritage show, and would sand pour out of her slipping veins? The thought amused her, but even as she contemplated the possibility, Mikazuki knew Hide was strictly off limits. She was Asahi's love, his property, and as such, for as long as he lived and breathed, she was untouchable. Once Asahi was gone... oh, how much fun was she going to have.

"But you haven't changed. Not really." Hide commented, her tone soft and true even as Mikazuki built up her walls. "You've grown into an adult woman and your hair is a different colour. You have scars to tell your stories now, but..." She took a deep breath, a flicker of emotion in her eyes before she quickly squashed it away. "This is who you've been all along. You might have fooled others into believing your act, even poor Keisuke fell for it at some point, but I–" Hide's breath hitched, something akin to fear settling on her emerald eyes. "I know who you truly are."

Mikazuki huffed out a laugh, arms falling slack at her sides as the sheet pooled around her ankles. She was completely naked now, her body glistening with sweat while her long grey and dead hair stuck to her skin, highlighting her curves. She was as naked as the day she came into the world, yet there was nothing vulnerable about her stance.

Instead, her presence was jarring – almost overwhelming, like her mere existence commanded some sort of respect. Hide knew that look, she'd seen in plenty of times on that damned mural, yet she still cocked her head to the side, eyeing her daughter like it was the first time she was seeing her at all. Maybe it was.

"And what is that, exactly?" Mikazuki asked, her voice cold as ice while she tilted her head, a calculating edge to her stare. "A monster, perhaps?"

Hide didn't back down, meeting Mikazuki's coldness with her own. It was a battle of the wills, the icy wall of the sorceress' indifference clashing with Hide's own barrier crafted by years of lies and deception. It was easy to forget the woman in front of her was almost as powerful as she was, and not because she held The King of Sorcerers on a leash, but because he gave her the power to wield him.

It was odd, the way in which the two resembled each other while being worlds apart. They shared a bloodline, a lineage, yet there was as much Edamura in Mikazuki as in the stone steps where they all bled out. Hide was the last member of their lost lineage, but her blood had run gold long before she met Asahi.

She was cunning and manipulative, a force to be reckoned with, the power of the Edamura flowing through her veins like sand in an hourglass. She was everything the Kinzoku admired, yet still never earned herself any grace with the elders. After all, she was a foreigner; she was bound to Asahi by marriage, not blood. It was both her greatest gift and her deepest regret.

"A curated nightmare." Hide answered honestly.

Mikazuki blinked slowly, pursing her lips and musing over her mother's words. It wasn't the first time she was being called a nightmare. It was her monicker, the newfound title she'd earned after butchering the Ninkilim, but something about the way Hide said it made her heart churn. Hide didn't say it kindly nor proudly, she spoke the words like an unsung warning, like there was some indecipherable weight behind them.

"If I'm a nightmare," Mikazuki began, arms crossed over her naked chest as a smug expression settled on her face. "Then maybe you should be a little bit more careful with the way you speak to me."

It was a threat. A warning. A promise. Something hollow and evil that crawled up from the deepest parts of her soul, like the hand of a curse reaching out of her throat to speak for her. Hide didn't cower in fear, didn't flinch or back away like Mikazuki expected. Instead, the woman pushed herself off from the bed, the gesture somehow majestic. Hide had always been a beautiful woman but, in that instance, there was something wretched in her, a darkness crawling inside of her which Mikazuki could now see clearly.

Hide didn't speak, didn't make a sound. Instead, she stood over her daughter, her hand caressing the naked skin of her belly under her fingers danced along the line of her c-section. This was the only scar that didn't hurt – at least, not physically. It was a different type of pain, another genre of agony which pooled in her belly while Hide traced the line with her nails, scraping the skin and leaving a red trail of irritated skin behind. There was something oddly threatening about the way she moved, the silence that lingered in the room almost as haunting as the feeling of her nail cutting across her skin.

Hide didn't know the truth – she didn't know about the twins, about Niko or the sacrifice she'd made for her children. Somehow, this didn't stop the fear from settling in. Mikazuki stilled, heart stuttering while she stood there, allowing that woman's hand to roam over her stomach. To Hide, this meant nothing. Nothing at all.

That was the first lie Mikazuki told, almost ten years ago. It was the only thing she could think of when the spy her father sent to Argentina was writhing on the ground with twelve bullet wounds in his body. So she lied – she made him lie, made him tell Asahi she lost the baby. Then, she put a bullet in his head. It wasn't her cleanest kill, but with contractions hitting her every two minutes and no Cursed Energy to rely on, Mikazuki had no real choice other than survive.

Hide's hand paused over the small pouch of fat under her stomach, holding it in her palms, almost like she could visualize her uterus behind all of those layers of skin and muscle. To Hide, this meant nothing. But to Mikazuki... it meant everything. Gods, Hide didn't even know the truth, but the gesture was enough to paralyze her with fear.

"Do not kid yourself, Mikazuki." Hide said slowly, dragging every word as she greedily palmed her daughter's stomach. "You have no freedom here. You are ours to do our bidding and everything else we might require of you. You might be the heiress, but you are ours." She gathered Mikazuki belly in her hands, the hold to tight the sorceress hunched in on herself, Hide's fingers digging into her skin and leaving red angry marks all over her abdomen. "Everything you have belongs to us. Every hair follicle, every drop of sweat, every tear, every fucking egg cell in your body is ours." The woman leaned in, still holding Mikazuki's stomach while her lips brushed her ear. "You are ours."

Hide snarled, pushing Mikazuki away with such force the sorceress stumbled. The Kinzoku heiress reached out in an attempt to grab onto something, yet all she could catch was the edge of the mirror. The full-length mirror toppled over, carried by Mikazuki's weight as the two collided with the cold hard ground.

The glass shattered as it hit the floor, shards flying everywhere while Mikazuki caught her breath, looking at her mother with rage. The sorceress bared her teeth, anger building inside of her like the simmering water of an overflowing pot. Hide didn't seem bothered, dusting off her dress before she looked down at her one last time.

"Don't fool yourself into thinking you have any say in this, dove." The woman spoke, mocking Keisuke with a flat tone before she adjusted the sleeves of her dress. "After all, at the end of the day... a nightmare is still just a dream."