His headache had finally eased enough to deal with sunglasses instead of the cloth covering for his face, though he still drew plenty of looks when he didn't take them off indoors. They would just have to deal with it.
Megumi's place was in a different ward from him, a train ride and a trek from the station away, and he knew there were a few others he recognized in this place. David's condo wasn't far, so that was convenient.
"I brought lunch over too. Have you been down the Star Trail yet? They've got tons of places to eat."
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The robots were annoying at worse. Toji didn't have a love for bashing in machinery. No joy in crush metal under the onslaught of the metal bar that once held him in his cell. Alas, he was a man on a mission and he wasn't even sure if the mission was even necessary.
He wasn't really trying to save Megumi. The kid survived on his for a year and dealt with whatever shenanigans the Six Eyes put him through. He sure as hell wasn't a stranger to violence.
Still... if he could at least make sure he's not here, then that would be good enough--
"--Megumi?"
There he was. As safe and sound as anyone can be behind bars.
A missed call early into the morning, which led to a voicemail being left shortly after. Megumi seems a little irritated of course, but that seemed to be his default state.
"Hey. Happy Father Day. Don't go getting into too much trouble, I can make dinner for us tonight once I get back to the apartments. See you then."
He stares at his phone.
His thumb hovers over the replay button.
It hovers there.
The phone is laid over his chest instead. Over the sore, beaten, and bloody bruise his body is still fighting to heal. It hurts a little less today.
He didn't have a plan for the holiday. He wasn't aware such a holiday even included him. He's sure the morning and day was reserved for Gojo and he didn't see a problem with that.
Toji sighed and got up. The last thing he'd want Megumi to see would be him still in bed after hours of receiving a heads up. Maybe he'll do something for himself today. With what, he did not have a single clue, but he'll figure something out.
"Gojo-sensei." He's approaching casually, rubbing his shoulder to try and brush off some invisible nerves Megumi might be feeling, "Did you want to go somewhere special today for your usual café crawl? My treat, it's Father's Day after all."
"Inviting me out for Father's Day but calling me sensei in the same sentence."
He's pouting in jest, his feet kicked up on the couch. His roommates are out at this point in the day, which is why he's sure Megumi's visiting now.
"Still! The thought is sweet. There's a new place out by the mall that serves bubble tea and ice cream. Might have something you'll like too. How's that?"
Something was off the moment he met Megumi's eyes. There wasn't any danger that made his instincts sharp, only a strong pull from his core. He wasn't a man of many words, choosing to get to the point. There wasn't room for indecisiveness in his line of work or his life for that matter.
Maybe that's why he didn't struggle so much with these words. They were things he's had years to justify, deny, and accept.
"You look so much like her that it's hard to look at you sometimes without feeling... overwhelmed."
He sighs the words like a chip of the stone that he carries breaks off.
"She was never a part of the sorcerer world. She was soft in all her edges and I see that in you. You've had to fight to live and survive early on thanks to me. Sharpen that softness she left you. She told me to watch over you. Her last words."
He sighs, the rocks falling, jagged as his eyes falls before landing on Megumi's again.
"If I loved her less, then I could have been there for you. It's too late to apologize. Too late to try and make up for time that I don't deserve to have. Ten years too late. But, I'm proud of you. Just by the look of you, I know you've been through hell and back and it didn't break you. It scarred you, sure, but that's better than dying from it."
He stared as he rubbed the back of his neck. The last drop in the bucket was all that's left.
"I love you despite the piss poor way I've showed it to you."
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Nanami really never understood why he was let back in so easily.
It wasn't as if he were particularly fixated on it, of course. A job was a job, and he needed one that he could do well with a tangible reward. He didn't want to do accounting for a financing firm, lining the pockets of shareholders his whole life. He wanted to do something that made life valuable.
Like most people in their twenties, he wanted a purpose. Excorsizing curses gave him that.
He'd honestly expected to be treated coldly, and was very thrown when he wasn't. He decided to not ask questions about this, even though it genuinely confused him. He liked clarity. He didn't like ambiguity. This was one of those cases where he decided to suck it up, since the alternative would involve talking, and he sure didn't want to do that, so he worked.
Since he'd kept up his fitness by boxing, he quickly made his way back to Grade 1, and found himself exactly where he'd been when he'd graduated. Going out on missions, occasionally with Satoru Gojo tagging along.
That was another thing he didn't understand. But it was also another thing that he let go. They didn't exactly leave on the best of terms, but he was still let right, back in. He was even more surprised, then, when he found out that he was not only being let back in, but also let in on something important.
Gojo was taking care of kids.
Gojo had popped open his wallet one day, while they were taking a train together, and had shown Nanami one of the most serious young kids he'd ever seen, with the wildest hair he'd ever seen, and the flattest expression he'd ever seen. And Nanami owned mirrors.
"Look at him~ Isn't he the cutest thing?" Gojo had gushed, while waving the picture around. Nanami, of course, agreed out of obligation--it was just what you did when you were shown pictures of kids. Even kids who were apparently under the care of a man Nanami genuinely didn't ever picture having them. He guessed everyone grew up one day.
Megumi Fushiguro was his name, apparently. Nanami quickly became familiar with Megumi Fushiguro.
He didn't go out of his way at first, because Nanami didn't think he was good with kids, and Fushiguro didn't seem to talk much. It was a slow process--he generally didn't go to people's houses, and Gojo generally didn't bring him around whenever they spent time together after work, but they worked together often enough that, as Fushiguro grew into becoming a sorcerer, he became a regular sight for Nanami--often enough that he grew some level of familiarity with the kid, working with him on some occasions.
Like most people who ended up there, Nanami genuinely didn't intend to let his walls down. Megumi Fushiguro wasn't a colleague, wasn't a nephew, wasn't his kid. He wasn't a teacher, either, or a mentor to him. Not intentionally.
Somehow, though...
"Somehow, along all the time I've known you, you've...become an important person to me. Not just an obligation from an adult to a child to protect him, nor from an experienced sorcerer to a young one."
"I felt a deep responsibility to protect you, because I ended up caring about you, individually, like family to me. You're a good kid, Fushiguro. I'm....genuinely sorry I couldn't fulfill what I wanted to do. I should have protected you, I'm sorry that I failed."
Oh, Megumi. It's funny how when Gojo told him to watch over the first years, Megumi's face was the first thing that came to mind. His memories of Megumi before the Culling Games was a sullen near-freshman who had cornered him and asked about the Night Parade planning, because Gojo had been particularly tight-lipped about it.
Seeing him now, decorated with scars and hmm-ing over choices in a delivery app for their movie night with friends, Yuuta can't help but feel that same protective urge.
I hope you let me take some of your burdens off your shoulders. Really, I don't mind it.
There was a lot of things he could say to the son of the man who had impacted his life so negatively. None of it was deserved. The kid had grown up without a father, given, he had Gojo, but he knew what Gojo was like so it must have been difficult.
"You deserved a more stable family."
"In some other world, I might not have fallen apart and could have helped raise you alongside Nanako and Mimiko. I'd like to think I would have been a good parent to you. Found some way to understand each other through your Shikigami and my curses. But, fate and my own foolishness ruined what could have been long ago."
"Despite that, I can tell Gojo cares deeply about you. You're a good kid. Keep not taking after your other dad."
