the fruits

ODA YUKINA WAS 19 YEARS OLD WHEN SHE BECAME ZENIN YUKINA. She was riding the high of graduating from Jujutsu Tech, the feeling of accomplishment that she had survived all four years of education when two of her classmates didn’t. Yukina had felt as if she were on top of the world, that she had her whole future laid out for her, that she was better than those two classmates six feet under.

And she was better. ‘Better’ enough to be chosen as the wife of the Zenin clan head.

“It’s an honour,” her parents told her, her mother rubbing soothing circles on her back and her father smiling with pride he had never had whenever she had received a promotion.

An honour for everyone but her. Certainly, her family was simply speaking platitudes for nothing could bring them more honour than the 5 million yen the Zenin had dumped right into their greedy fingers for simply saying; “Yes! Please marry our daughter.”

Just like that, Yukina would be on top of the world. Not on her own merit, oh no, that was simply not done. But because of her husband, the head of one of the three great sorcerer clans. Everything that Oda Yukina was would be irreversibly tied to Zenin Naobito and to his esteemed clan. Her children would be Zenin, those little creatures she would have to bear. Her kimonos would be in the traditional, dark Zenin colours. Her every action would reflect upon the great Zenin clan.

Oda Yukina ceased to exist the moment she exchanged sakazuki cups in her wedding to a man old enough to be her father and in her place, Zenin Yukina was born.

On her wedding night, she fantasized about slitting her husband’s throat.

In the morning, she fantasized about drowning her stepchildren in the manmade lake by the Hei’s training courtyard.

Sneering, arrogant little shits. They looked at her as if she were a raw piece of meat, but none of the stupid little cunts were even Grade 1 sorcerers. Yukina had been a Grade 2 sorcerer when she graduated, she could take them. She could kill them and string up their bodies with their own intestines for her husband to find. He wouldn’t care much, their mothers were dead, and he had Yukina to provide him with more heirs.

Yukina had kept up her polite smile, wielding it as an armour against the smirking men whose gazes crawled over her body like insects creeping up her skin.

There was one Zenin man, or a boy considering his youth — he looked at her with nothing in his sharp green eyes. He was a handsome boy, sharp-featured as all the Zenin were with a scar on one corner of his lips.

Yukina would later learn that his name was Toji, the younger son of the former Zenin clan head before Naobito.

She would also learn that his mother hung herself on the sakura tree right by Yukina’s rooms when the boy was six and had manifested no Cursed Technique.

That will not be my fate, Yukina told herself as she sat on the genkan before the sakura tree, nursing a cup of kōcha with a plate of nerikiri.

If there was an upside to her marriage into the Zenin clan, it would be the premium quality of traditional Japanese food. Yukina had never tasted such finery before, hers was a well-off clan but it did not compare to the wealth of the three great sorcerer clan. Though the Zenin being traditionalists meant that she only indulged in Japanese foods within the estate, no Western influence. Yukina would commit arson for a nice hamburg steak, but playing the damsel in distress was too much work for her.

The servants of the Zenin estate were well trained to be ghosts, they were rarely seen and rarely heard. That pleased Yukina as it meant she didn't have to indulge in silly little small talk, ensuring the servants were valued as companions when they were just that, servants. She supposed they were useful in their deaths for preventing poisonings via food. Naobito's younger brother, the sullen Ogi, was nothing short of displeased at the sight of her.

So no, Yukina wouldn't be taking any chances.

Naobito visited her only to bed her, preferring to spend his days watching the latest anime and drinking when not doing his duties as clan head. Oh, she supposed he also lectured his whelps on what disappointments they were. That was good. That meant that Yukina's future sons could easily supplant their positions, weak little shits they were.

None of them had inherited Naobito's Projection Sorcery, but most importantly none of them had inherited the prized Ten Shadows technique.

If Yukina had a son with Projection Sorcery, then that son would become heir but there would be disputes no doubt, from people like that sullen Ogi or the Brute, Jinichi. Troublesome, but Yukina could arrange certain things for them. However, if Yukina's son came to bear the Ten Shadows, there would be no dispute. The clan would have to accept it, their beloved Ten Shadows had returned home after all. No matter how sour Ogi felt or how angry Jinichi was, that would all pale compared to the pleasure and pride Naobito would feel as the father of such a sorcerer.

As the mother of such a sorcerer, Yukina could never be discarded. It was her womb, after all, that birthed a child carrying a technique not seen in at least a hundred years. She would have Naobito's praise and respect, because while he was a disgusting man, he had some modicum of honour. And after Naobito's death, she would have power over her son, the head of one of the Three Great Sorcerer clans.

Knowing the Zenin Clan’s behaviour towards women, she would have to beat respect and filial duty into her son during his formative years. She would not lose to some backwards teaching that should've rotted with the Heian era nearly a thousand years ago, oh no, the boy would learn to respect her even if it meant fearing her. General misogyny aside, Yukina would also have to worry for any future daughter-in-laws attempting to subvert her influence over her son. But that could be handled later, she was a woman and she knew how women worked. She would choose a beautiful fool for her son.

A scarred hand reached for the nerikiri shaped as a cherry blossom flower.

Yukina froze, just now only realizing the presence of the boy-man beside her. Zenin Toji bit into her wagashi as if he had owned the place, staring ahead at the sakura tree. Yukina didn't bother about the nerikiri, she could always bid a servant to bring her more. But the boy had waltzed into her quarters, sat down, and reached for her sweets all the whole she was none the wiser.

The boy-man was stocky and muscular, built like a truck with a certain feline grace that was absent in his older brother. Jinichi stomped all over the estate, his footfalls demanding to be heard. But Toji was silent as a ghost, quieter than even the servants despite his size. Yukina had felt nothing, no presence of Cursed Energy, nothing. Even a ghost would leave a lingering presence.

And that scared her more than anything else in the Zenin estate. Because that was unnatural, it was as if he was simply a bodysuit walking around the estate. No Cursed Energy was emitting from him, even non-sorcerers had a sliver of it. But not him, Yukina had not sensed anything from him. It was as if he was soulless.

“Ya know,” he said, in between bites, “you're not the pretty little thing everyone thinks you are.”

Yukina smiled, polite and not too widely as was expected of her. “Oh my, are you calling me ugly, Toji-kun?”

The boy-man stopped chewing, turning his head to look at her in a motion so slow yet so smooth that Yukina felt goosebumps erupt all over her arms at the fluidity of the motion. “I'm sayin’ you're a snake hiding behind a sweet-smelling flower,” his voice was gruff, “and that one day you're gonna bite anyone who tries to pick you.”

Yukina's pinky finger twitched.

“And will you try to pick me, Toji-kun? An innocent little flower.”

“You can turn off your technique, I'm not gonna tell anyone.” he said, his hand which held the nerikiri was frozen mid-motion.

Behind them, against the tatami mats, their shadows were connected. A link between Yukina's shadow and Toji's, reaching like a snake, coiled around the shadow of his shoulder.

Yukina relaxed, the shadow snake pulling back into her own shadow.

“Oh?”

Toji grinned crookedly, teeth flashing. “You think I like any of those old coots?” he snorted, “you'd be doing the world a favour, getting rid of them.”

Yukina's eyes darted around before she placed a hand on the genkan and leaned closer towards Toji.

“I don't want to kill them, Toji-kun,” she spoke quietly, “I want to take everything they ever wanted, from right underneath their noses.”

Toji threw his head back and laughed.

Yukina sat beside Naobito on the raised tatami, rubbing a hand over her swollen belly. She watched the other members of the Zenin clan, arranged in two lines facing each other. The closer to the dais, the higher the rank. But it didn't matter, because everyone was looking at them. At her. At her swollen belly.

She could feel the shadows writhe beneath her and at night when she slept, she dreamt of animals, nine of them, and a humanoid figure towering over them making the tenth.

Yukina had to suppress a grin every time she woke up. Her child would carry the Ten Shadows, she was certain of it. And when he was born, all these stupid old men would have no choice but to bow their heads to a child not even half their age. And to her, the mother who produced such a child.

She raised her cup when her husband gestured for a toast, meeting the dead, dark eyes of Ogi. Ogi's grip on his own cup was white knuckled, a crack appearing on the pristine ceramic. Yukina would've laughed in his face if she could. Ten years of marriage and his wife, the equally sullen Saki, hasn't given him a child.

Yukina wondered if it ever occurred in his insipid mind that perhaps, he was just impotent? Of course not, Zenin Ogi was so assured of his own greatness. Great men left their wives with a black eye, after all. With Yukina here, Saki had lost her position as the highest ranking woman of the Zenin clan. She had filled in since the death of Naobito's last wife two years ago. Now Saki didn't have the excuse of duty to avoid her husband.

Saki was gazing down, looking anywhere but the dais or Ogi, her hands folded gracefully on her lap. She didn't even get her own table, instead sitting behind Ogi with a tray of food before her.

Truly, Ogi was distasteful. If Yukina didn't have plans to see him grovel before her son, he might've been six feet under by now. Alas, the possibility of watching him bow his head down to her child excited her more than watching him choke on his own food.

Far away at the end of the hall, Zenin Toji stood up and raised his cup.

“A toast!” he called, disregarding the way everyone, including Naobito, stiffened at the sight of his grin that was too much teeth and his eyes that were filled with mirth and joy, “to the lady of the Zenin clan, may she bring forth a talented sorcerer capable of being worth my time!”

The hall fell into pin drop silence, but Yukina stood up and clapped her hands with her perfect smile. “A thousand thanks to you, Toji-kun, for your well-wishes and high hopes!”

Jinichi looked as if he had swallowed a lemon and Yukina resisted the urge to spill juice on his ugly face.

The hall followed in either raising their cups or politely clapping their hands. Yukina's smile grew more genuine at the sight of them playing along. Truly they were all stupid men terrified of anything stronger than them. Soon, they would come to fear her child and come to fear her for what her son would do for her.

Yes, the Zenin clan took her youth away from her and she would take the position of Clan Head away from all of them.

“It's a girl.”

Yukina's smile became fixed on her face, staring at the doctor who was doing an ultrasound on her. The doctor smiled at Yukina, genuine joy surrounding the lines of his face.

“Are you positive?” Yukina maintained a casual air, “these things can be wrong sometimes, can't they?”

“It can,” the doctor agreed amicably, “but I'm quite certain.”

Yukina was quite certain she would like to snap his neck.

Yukina allowed her shadow to be connected to the doctor's, extending a strand all the way to the three midwives watching. “Now, doctor, are you truly sure?” she drawled, watching cold-sweat erupt on the doctor's forehead, his eyes becoming wide with fear. “It's a boy, the esteemed Clan Head will have a new heir.”

The doctor's lips quivered as the shadows began to reach up from his feet, twisting around his torso in inky blackness.

“It's a boy,” he agreed.

“How delightful!” Yukina giggled. “I can't wait to tell Naobito.”

She released her shadows and glanced at the quivering midwives. How pitiful, just a taste of a Cursed Technique and they were already reduced to mush. No wonder they were only pitiful Grade 3 and Grade 4s. They lacked the spine for anything higher and were meant to be nothing more than cannon fodder for more powerful curses. But that would be in Yukina's favour.

The weaker they were, the easier to kill.

Yukina would not do it herself, oh no. She was a delicate flower of a woman, who had no taste for murder. Besides, Cursed Energy left residuals and Naobito would be wary if he knew she was capable of murder. Again, Yukina smiled at the stupidity of men — this is why they died in the stupidest of ways.

Yukina later found Toji lying down in her genkan, sunbathing as if he were a cat, staring at the barren sakura tree with an unreadable gaze in his eyes.

Was the boy-man sentimental over being the cause of his mother's death? Yukina doubted that, she would certainly not if she were him. If the woman was weak enough to succumb to pressure and take her own life, Yukina would have disowned her as her mother.

“Toji-kun.”

Toji turned to look at her, but did not make any signs of getting up as Yukina sat beside him.

Yukina slapped him with an envelope and as quickly as a viper, Toji caught her wrist in a grip firm enough to bruise.

Yukina rolled her eyes. “It’s money, you stupid monkey.”

Toji released her wrist and sat up, the envelope falling to his lap. He snatched it up and ripped the thing open, whistling at the bills encased within it.

“Right, whaddya want me to do?” he asked. “Ain't no way, you're giving me a million yen for free.”

Yukina made a show of checking her perfectly manicured nails. “I have two hens I want gone and later, once I've given birth, you'll kill the rooster and the last hen for me.”

“What makes you think I won't go running my mouth to Naobito about this?”

Yukina smiled at him, enveloping her larger hand with her smaller, daintier one. “Because you want to get out of this place eventually, no? You're gonna leave and you're not going to have anything except the clothes on your back and then, what'll you do, hmm? You don't even have a high school diploma because you're not in Jujutsu Tech. Somehow, I can't see you becoming a cashier at a konbini.”

To imagine it was almost comical. Toji, with his burly build and cold, catlike eyes glaring down at a customer. Clad in the usual employee apron, he would seem more a masquerading delinquent than an actual, honest employee.

“And so what? Ya want me to be your guard dog?”

“I have no such illusions,” because Zenin Toji could kill Yukina and no one would've known that he did it. He didn't have any Cursed Energy and sorcerers were too up in their heads to look for anything other than Cursed Energy residuals when it came to one another or threats of their world. “Consider this an entry in your CV for when you leave the Clan — you have abilities suited for a clean murder and I know you'll not leave any evidence behind. People will pay for that.”

“And whaddya call this, ‘work experience’?” Toji snorted.

Yukina reached up to pat his cheek. “Internship.”

As she suspected, Toji was an immaculate assassin. Two of her midwives, save one, had disappeared off the face of the planet by the time she was ready to give birth. Toji had killed them off slowly, leaving a span of time between each, arranging their quarters so it seemed they had up and left. In a fit of pettiness, the boy-man had covered his elder brother in splatters of blood belonging to one of the little hens. Naobito had walked in to see Jinichi fondling a dead woman in his sleep, covered in her blood. Naobito had beaten Jinichi for that, his beating exacerbated by Yukina’s weeping over her dead midwife.

Toji had watched his elder brother’s humiliation openly, standing on the engawa with his arms crossed. His face was expressionless, but his dark eyes were alight with pleasure akin to a cat who got the cream.

Nobody actually cared for the dead midwives since the clan would cover up their murders, they were expendable. They were women after all.

Toji had a sprite to his steps then, buying himself a fine new yukata in mourning black. Yet even with the sprite in his steps, Yukina could never track the boy-man. He appeared when he wanted to, coming and going as a summer breeze. When he wanted to be seen, he skulked like a panther carefully watching for its prey, mostly when training with the Kukuru Unit. Sometimes he would sit so utterly still during dinners, it seemed he didn’t breathe.

Yukina preferred Toji beating the fellow members of his unit with glee, anything was better than the nothingness he seemed to be whenever he was not fighting. Toji could stand behind her for hours and she would be none the wiser to his presence until he made it known. Yukina hated that, hated the lack of control his strange talent meant. He was an aberration, something that should have never existed in their world. Neither a sorcerer or a regular human, something other.

She supposed having the strange boy-man in her pocket was more useful than not.

Yukina laboured for two days, cursing her child for causing her so much pain and yet delighting in it. If the brat could cause this much pain to her, then how much pain could she cost to the silly men who thought they were in charge.

It brought her pride, no matter how she wished for a son, that it was a daughter who seemed to tug at the sentient Cursed Energy in the room. A daughter for whom the shadows bent and twisted, the vague outline of animals beginning to form as they seemed to coalesce like ink. The doctor and midwife were terrified, the oppressing presence of a general seemed to be in the room with them.

Naobito was somewhere in the estate of course, the birthing room was no place for men and he was already drinking to having another son. Why was it that while mothers fought for their children, it was the men who got to enjoy the fruits of their labour?

The wail of a baby broke Yukina’s screaming, the shadows receding and becoming as they were under the warm, yellow light of the birthing chambers.

“A girl, my lady.” the insipid doctor spoke quietly.

Yukina smiled through her sweat and pain, reaching out for her child. The doctor cut the umbilical cord and handed her over to the midwife. Yukina was tempted to strangle the doctor with her shadows for ignoring her, but settled for pushing out the placenta instead and getting sewn up.

Once that was said and done, the midwife approached her with a quaint smile as the doctor’s neck snapped and her smile turned into the beginnings of a scream. But Toji was faster, domineering as he stood over her and had a hand clasped over her mouth. The stupid little hen nearly dropped Yukina’s baby out of shock, but Toji had placed another hand under the newborn and the midwife’s grip tightened.

“Give me my child,” Yukina demanded, and the woman’s wide eyes darted between Toji and Yukina, breath shuddering.

The Cursed Energy fluctuated, but pushing through her exhaustion, Yukina was faster and the shadow of the bed had connected with the midwife’s dim shadow. The stupid little cunt froze on the spot, Yukina’s baby beginning to mewl in displeasure in her arms.

Yukina groaned. “Don’t be stupid now,” she drawled, holding out her arms, “give me my baby.”

Yukina released her shadow and the midwife approached her, placing the child in Yukina’s arms. All the while shaking like a leaf. Pitiful. A disgrace to sorcerers all around.

The hen hadn’t even taken a step back yet when Toji pulled her by the collar of her blouse and smashed her head against the table of medical tools. Toji had overestimated his own strength, because droplets of blood sprayed Yukina’s face and she let out a growl of annoyance, licking away the blood on her lips.

“Whoops.” Toji didn’t sound very sorry, as he picked a shard of the hen’s skull off his clothes.

Her baby had fallen asleep as soon as she had felt Yukina’s bare chest against her face, so small mercies.

“Clean up the bodies.” Yukina told Toji.

“That’s gonna charge you.”

Yukina laughed, raising a perfectly arched brow. “Making demands, already?”

“I learned from the best.”

A product of her mother-hormones, Yukina felt a surge of affection for the strange boy-man with blood and viscera all over his clothes.

Nevertheless, the show must go on.

Gingerly, Yukina climbed out of bed and laid her child on the bassinet which had already been prepared. It was a good thing that the Zenin considered it disgraceful for the father to visit the mother of the baby while she was still in bed, instead the mother would bring the child to him. If she was too weak, then a servant would. But Yukina would rather not a servant touch her child just yet, she was still vetting which ones were willing to serve only her.

So Yukina wiped herself down, put on a new kimono and dressed her child without assistance.

And men think us weaker, she nearly scoffed aloud.

Yukina walked slowly to the room she knew Naobito was in, gathered with his sycophants and the highest ranking members of the clan. The shoji doors before her slid open and Yukina grinned.

“Husband, you have a son.”