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Megumi is tired. He is. He tries to be a good person. He tries to save Tsumiki from the culling game. Save the only family he had even though they are not related in blood.
But the world is just a fuck up place. When he thinks everything will be okay, the table chooses to turn now.
Tsumiki is not Tsumiki. That curse whatever it is changes her. She becomes a being that is more like a curse rather than the sister he knows. And she laugh loud, twisted, and ugly. Laughing at his failed attempt to save the humanity in her.
Megumi feel like a shit.
"Yo little Fushiguro!" A man with a handsome face wearing monk attire came. Line of a sewed skin prominent on his forehead.
'Kenjaku!'
Megumi's hand ready to call his shadows. His body is tense. He didn't think that person/curse will come in this field.
This is an opportunity to get prison realm. Or at least to know where that is.
"Easy boy. I just want to talk." Kenjaku smile. Not a sinister one.
Megumi never imagine their conversation will be about.
"Do you know where your father is?"
***
The night is dark and silent. Something rare in this desolate place. The smell of ashes and smoke permeates the air. Heavy with gloom and horror.
Megumi sat on the floor. He stays at what look like can be an apartment with little furniture intact. A drawer, a bed, a little desk that sat idle in the corner, and scattered books on top of that. A small room weirdly reminds him of his old house.
Before Gojo Satoru came into his life.
"Do you know why your father didn't come back?"
He doesn't know. He never wants to know.
Or he?
"I bet that teacher of yours never tell you this. Never tell you the truth about your father's absence."
His father was always absent. He never stays in his life long enough to make Megumi remember his face. Megumi even thinks he is better as an orphan rather than hopelessly waiting for his father to come back.
And that Gojo Satoru came into his life.
"He is abandoning me."
He always thinks that. His father never comes back because he is a liability to him. Family is a laughing matter to a Zen'in. And his father, despite using Fushiguro as his name will always be a Zen'in. Megumi believes he is not important to his father. He is just a burden for him.
"He never intended to abandon you."
Megumi didn't believe that. How can he believe some word from a stranger? A curse with a polite face. But his heart waver when hearing about his father. The person that abandoned him long ago.
He thought he was fine and never know about his father.
"He wants to go home. To see you again but he couldn't. Because he is dead."
One drop of pin tinkle in his ear. His breath stuttered. His father is dead? Megumi thinks he just ... gone.
Megumi didn't know anything about his father. He didn't know if his father was a sorcerer. Did he die because a mission go wrong? Did he die of fighting with curses? Did he die because he protecting other people?
"He dies because jujutsu sorcerers are afraid of his power." Kenjaku answers the unspeaking question. "He dies because of the unfairness of this world."
The wavering in his eyes deeper. The start of doubt blooming in his heart. The cold and bitterness of that statement are so true and understandable. The Jujutsu world is unfair to them that don't have power. But they are too unfair to them that have too much power. His father must have a power that makes jujutsu sorcerers afraid of him.
Something that warrants him to get killed.
"Do you know who killed him?"
The soft voice from Geto Suguru's vocal make Megumi look at him with want. Seduce him to see the dark eyes that curse wear. Megumi sees sorrow and pity. And understanding that painfully reach into the deep of Megumi's heart.
An emotion that he tried to bury a long time ago.
"The person who killed your father is him."
Gojo Satoru
Mirriad of emotion coming to his chest. Megumi feels pressure in his lungs. His breath stuttered. Pain and heavy. He wants to deny it, but he can't. Because somehow it sounds like truth.
A truth that was purposely meant to hurt him.
Megumi wants to run away from it. But the curse is not done yet. It's spoken clearly.
"Before his last breath, he asks the same person that killed him to take care of you."
He asks Gojo to take care of him.
That's why Gojo-sensei comes to his doorstep. That's why Gojo-sensei becomes a guardian for both Tsumiki and him. That's why he provides everything for him.
'That's why Megumi didn't become a Zen'in.'
In the pitch of his heart Megumi wants to believe his father cares about him. He knows despite Megumi having great technique, it's not a guarantee the Zen'in clan will care about him. About his well-being. About his happiness. As much as Megumi hates Gojo's antics, he didn't feel unhappy. He feels kinda free in his way. Something that he can't have if he goes to Zen'in.
His father didn't want to abandon him. His father just can't make it home.
His teacher was the person that killed him. That makes his father can't to go home.
His father...
"He protects you from that curse in Shibuya right?"
Megumi didn't understand that question-like statement. Shibuya itself is a nightmare for him. He fought many curses at that time. He fought and loses.
"The one that comes to rescue you from the special grade octopus."
A stranger's face comes forward. Surprisingly he remembers each detail of that face. Dark hair with sharp eyes. A scar on his lips. A smile that sends a chill down his spine. A strong person that can break Maki's Playful Cloud and make it a sharp object. And the stranger question, in the end, was his father? His deceased father?
"What's your name?" A deep voice asks him. The same person who killed a special grade effortlessly.
"Fushiguro." Megumi answered anxiously.
"He protects you from that curse and himself."
"Not Zenin huh? Good for you." And he kills himself. But he was smiling at Megumi. A smile that genuinely relieves rather than sinister.
A smile that makes Megumi confused until this day.
' Because he relief I didn't become a Zen'in.' his traitored heart said.
Megumi thought he is fine. He didn't need his father. He didn't care about his whereabouts.
But now
Megumi wants to see his father. To see him again in person rather than a blurry memory.
"What's his name?"
Megumi is a bad child. He didn't even remember his father's name. He never wants to know. But now he wants.
"His name is..."
'I want to see him.'
He didn't know what to do. His heart is full of desire. His insting seems to yell at him to do something. They said he know it. He knows what to do to grant his wish.
Megumi took a deep breath. Mind focusing on a face that he meet a long time ago. His curse energy brimming in his body, calling it forth to use. His hand curl with each other making a shadow of a human face. The black pool from his shadow lengthed stretched, and make a bigger puddle.
'I want to see him.'
The shadow blobbing like bubbles from boiled water. It's starting to rise and make the shape of human body. A tall body with a big broad shoulder, mass of muscles, and strong features. He wears a black fit body shirt that stretches on his chest, making his booba protrude. A cream white color pants adore his leg. With how big and loose the fabric, it looks like for a martial artist. For making his move easier. He wearing flat shoes that Megumi saw at some old Shaolin movie. Megumi's eyes look at his face and realize.
A scar on his lips.
'I want to see him.'
That man stands still. His posture is straight. Face blank of any emotion. His scleras are full of black but his irises are the color of jade. The same color as Megumi's eyes.
Megumi stands close in front of him. His height just reach his father's chin. His father is so big and tall. Not as tall as Gojo-sensei but quite tall for an adult. Megumi looks at him and sees their resemblance. A high nose, sharp eyes, their eyelashes.
"Father?" His voice trembles.
That man stands still. Face blank of any emotion. He didn't breathe or blink. He stays unmoving.
Megumi bite his lips. His heart pounding so loud in his ribs. He licks his lips and voices a word.
"Daddy?"
So soft and childish. So weird but feels right. The man's eyes tremble and Megumi sees it. He recognized that word. Megumi feels his lips tug.
"Daddy?"
Megumi's hand rose to touch that man. His palms slip on the broad muscle to his shoulder, to hard neck until stops on the nape. He tiptoed to reach it. His father's skin is so cold. He should feel this wrong. But he brings his body close.
"Daddy, do you remember me?"
The man's eyes flickered to his face. His irises move like searching for something. He tilts his head like trying to remember him.
"I'm your..."
son Megumi wants to say it but he stops. He doesn't know why. Maybe he wants his father to recognize him without telling him. Maybe he is afraid his father will reject him. Maybe he just thinks it's not necessary.
'I want him.'
His own voice whispered dark things to him. With or without his father recognizing him, Megumi can make his father...
He already lost some shikigami. He needs a new one to fight the next battle. He can make his father...
One of Megumi's hands tracings his father's face. His finger brushes a scar at the corner of his lips. Megumi wonders what story that scar has. Is it from a fight with people? From mission? Or from humiliation?
If it is the latter he wants to know who was doing it. He want to know who was the ill person that dare to scar his father's face. It must be hurt.
Despite that, he thinks the scar makes his father look more devilish and handsome. A weird thought for himself. Megumi chuckled at his thought.
His father's eyes tremble again. He looks affected by his laugh. Megumi smiles small. He tiptoed his shoes and put his lips on that scar. His heartbeat pounded in his chest.
Megumi backed a little without releasing his hold on his father's nape. Their face is just some inches apart. His breath brushed his father's lips. Megumi sees his father's eyes blinking.
It's work!
Megumi kisses his lips again. This time he moves his lips a little. Trying to not be bothered by his father's cold lips. That lips tremble at his ministration but didn't move back.
"Daddy..."
Megumi places his palm on his father's cheek. A small smile adorned his face. His father still has a blank face but his eyes recognize him.
Megumi nearly jumps when he feels a hand touch his waist. A big one. His father's hand.
His father move.
His lips part apart and seem to make a word. A first word since their encounter. His voice sound weird because he didn't use his real vocal chord. But a word it is that makes Megumi's heart soar.
Megumi...
Megumi feels victorious. He kisses his father's lips again. He asks in a whisper.
"Say again, my name?"
Megumi
Megumi smiled and relief. He feels his father's arm circling his waist. Touching him with curiosity. Cold but for Megumi he is alive.
"Stay with me."
It's not just a phrase. It's more like an order from his lips. His longing, his wish, his desire that can't be granted when his father is alive. But now he can. Now he can make his father stay forever.
His father nods. A short but certain nod. Their noses nearly touching.
"Promise me."
I'm promise.
A binding vow was formed with that promise. A son and his father. A master and his shadow. Megumi feels it thread binding his heart. He sees his father's forehead glow red. Three circles with lines connecting each other.
Megumi touches that symbol. Cold in his fingertip but brimming with power. He hugs his father. His face sinks into his father's surprisingly soft chest.
"Don't leave again."
From now on I won't let you go Daddy