#anyway yes they’re not living in the best conditions but they would have been culled otherwise | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shuttershocky · 5 years

Text

“This was a bad decision. We can’t keep her, Touko-san.”

“Eh?”

It was a slow day at the office, and Touko had everyone but Kokutou sent home. Sakura had fallen fast asleep on Shiki’s favorite sofa, the room having been silent save for the scratching of a pen.

It had been a week since Sakura was rescued (well, technically kidnapped) from the Matous, their manor having gone up in flames thanks to a highly aggressive Azaka. Life at the Hollow Shrine had been different to say the least; caring for a horrifically traumatized 12-year-old girl was not exactly a skill in anyone’s repertoire. Still, Touko was strangely taken with the girl. She had offered Sakura a new home with her and even an apprenticeship under her, so long as the young girl would work as part of the agency.

Sakura agreed immediately, all protests from Kokutou about “child labor laws” and “inadequate living standards” completely ignored.

Now she was napping on the sofa, lulled by the gentle whirs of the ceiling fan and a day of training.

Touko Aozaki was staring aimlessly at an opened tome, her mind too clouded by the spell of a late afternoon to truly absorb what she was reading. She hoped Kokutou would read the room and realize she was in no state to talk.

“We should probably call social services. We can’t keep Sakura with us.”

Damn it. Leave it to Mikiya Kokutou to talk business 24/7.

Touko raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

Kokutou spread out his hands and gestured to just about everything in the office.

“These conditions are terrible! In her old home, she at least had an actual bed and three meals a day. Now she’s sleeping in half a sofa!”

“She could have the whole sofa but Shiki keeps napping in there after work.”

“That’s not the point! The Hollow Shrine is no place for a child. There’s more beer and coffee in the fridge than water, we deal with a new horror movie monster every week, and you’ll still try to smoke inside if you think I won’t catch you!”

“Technically, if Sakura ever develops lung problems I could just make her new lungs.”

“Touko-san!”

“What?” Touko asked with extra cheek, leaning on her desk and resting her chin on her fingers. She may not have wanted to play the game, but now that they were in one of their arguments, she was in it to win it.

Kokutou sighed and pushed his glasses back into his face, taking a deep breath as he did so.

Touko’s grin widened. Bring it.

“Touko-san, you know nothing about caring for kids.”

“I took care of you just fine didn’t I?”

“I was 17.”

“17? 12? What’s the big difference?”

“School, for one thing. Sakura’s just starting Middle school and she’s already been absent for a week.”

“She can keep going. Make her an excuse letter saying she caught some flesh-eating bug and needed to spend a few days in quarantine; it’s not even a total lie.”

“And how do you suppose she’ll get to school every day when it’s nowhere near here?”

“Trains exist. She’ll get there.”

“She’ll have to leave early every morning to get there on time. Who’s going to make her breakfast?”

“There are convenience stores on the way.”

“She’ll need an allowance to pay for food and fare.”

“She works for me, she’ll get paid. Same as all of you.”

“You barely pay me at all.”

“And yet you got Shiki pregnant on her first year of college and are now trying to raise your daughter while keeping Shiki in school, on your paycheck. Tell me, Kokutou, who’s the King of Bad Decisions here?”

Touko enjoyed the glare Kokutou shot at her. He held it for half a minute, no doubt searching for a new avenue of attack. When he failed to say anything, the tiny Touko in the magus’ hazy daydream started on its victory dance. It stopped short when the real Touko noticed the expression on her apprentice’s face had softened.

“Touko,” Kokutou said at last. “Sakura’s been through a lot. Don’t you think she deserves better than this? Better than us?”

If Touko was not holding her face in her hands, her jaw might have dropped from surprise. She didn’t expect him to get all sappy on her, but she really should have. If there was anything Kokutou did, it was genuinely care.

She taught him well. Maybe too well. Was there any way for her to keep arguing her side and not sound like an asshole?

Touko raised both hands and held them palm outwards in surrender. Half-surrender.

“Okay, okay. I see your points, Kokutou. The Hollow Shrine isn’t the best place for a kid. I’m certainly not the best person to take her in either.”

Kokutou nodded. “I’m glad you see it my way.”

“But!”

“…But?”

“It may not be the best place for her to stay, but I believe it’s the only place for her to stay.”

Kokutou’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

It was Touko’s turn to push her glasses up.

“Listen very carefully, Mikiya. The girl has potential. Quite a lot of it, in fact. Enough that any magi family undergoing a bit of a dry spell in power would be interested in her. You place her into the system, and they’ll find her eventually. They’re always looking for children to use…”

Touko’s voice dropped low.

“…Or potential rivals to cull.”

Kokutou swallowed.

“What if we made sure she’s taken in by an ordinary family?”

“No magus would be bothered by stepping on a few innocent people to get what they want. I know I didn’t.”

The sun had begun to set on the horizon, splashing the room with an eerie red glow. Kokutou’s eyes were hidden in shadow.

“What’s more,” Touko continued. “I doubt an ordinary family is equipped to help her. My initial examinations revealed several foreign objects inside her that I’ve not been able to remove yet, as well as signs of heavy scarring and alterations to her magic circuits.“

Touko’s voice continued to drop until it was barely above a whisper, as if she was afraid of Sakura hearing her. As if she was afraid the words would find their way into the young girl’s peaceful dreams.

“They didn’t just hurt her, Mikiya. Whatever they did, it changed her. I sent a trace through her body and the response I got back did not draw a picture of a frightened, innocent girl. There is a shadow that lives under her skin, and I don’t know if it’s the slumbering form of her fear, pain, or rage. What I do know is that it’s powerful, and nothing stays asleep forever.“

Kokutou’s eyes weren’t hidden now.

“What…”

“You cracked Fujino’s case. You know what kind of hell someone desperate can raise.”

“But that was because of her Mystic Eyes. Sakura can’t-”

“For now, yes. But there are things out there, monstrous things, that tend to come for girls like her. Beings of agony and loathing that whisper in your ears about how only they can possibly understand the anger. The torment. They come at night when you’re alone with your thoughts, and they never leave you until dawn. They wait until your heart opens the smallest crack to let them in, then they take your body for a joy ride.“

The look on Kokutou’s face told the mage that maybe it was time to change the topic. She needed him to be able to sleep to do his best work.

“Anyway, even if the darkness in Sakura were to go away someday, the scars it leaves behind wouldn’t. She might have to deal with the effects of the Matous’ torture for the rest of her life. Unless of course, she stays with me.”

“How is it different if Sakura’s with you?”

Touko’s glasses were gone, a terrifying grin now splitting the magus’ face. The sun had fully set now, the last ray of sunlight vanishing as it passed her eyes.

“Because I stared death in the face and made it my bitch,” Touko sneered. “There is no wound they can cut, no trauma they can inflict, nothing anyone can do to a body that I cannot undo. Nothing Zouken could have done to her that I cannot make better. Helps that the one exception to this rule is under my employ too.”

Kokutou chuckled. “Touko, if I didn’t know you better I would have thought you cared about Sakura.”

Touko pursed her lips. “Call it a magus’ curiosity; she’s a fascinating specimen. Besides, no snooty Clocktower family can develop her powers like I can. Watch this.”

The peerless puppeteer clapped her hands twice, before folding both hands over her mouth to amplify her voice.

“Sakura! Sealing Enforcer!”

“HIYAH!”

The sleeping Sakura leapt to her feet, eyes as wide as dinner plates and one arm outstretched and pointed towards the Hollow Shrine’s entrance. A purple bolt of energy arced from her hand and slammed into a nearby column, shaking the building. All in all, a meter long crack on the cement, a whole floor’s worth of dust shaken from the ceiling, and Kokutou’s jaw nowhere to be found.

“W-was that a test?” The girl squeaked. “D-did I do it right?”

“You did great, kid!” Touko called. “Gotta work on your aim a little, but that was excellent form.”

“See, Kokutou? Only a week and she’s doing nonverbal, unassisted offensive magecraft. Sure she’s a little inaccurate now, but give her some time and no Sealing Enforcer’s going home with an intact set of ribs. Show me another mage who can bring that out of her. Wait, let me stop you there, you can’t.”

Kokutou turned to his boss very slowly.

“You do know that’s a support column right?”

“What?”

#Aozaki Adoption #Shuttersfic #Eyyy i reworked one of the earliest AA posts to be more like an actual chapter now

137 notes · View notes