Chapter Text
For as long as Ayano could remember, she had been born without the one thing that made her human.
Emotions.
She didn't laugh, she didn't cry, she didn't throw tantrums, nor did she show any interests that any child would. Nothing about her was human, even when her biological state said otherwise.
She felt nothing. She was empty.
While her Father fretted and worried over her, her Mother simply smiled and patted her head whenever she asked if there was something wrong with her.
"You're not strange Ayano-Chan~" Her Mother hummed as she went to tuck in the physical representation of her and her husband's love. "You were just born to be emotionless, just like every Aishi woman in our family. I was like you, your grandmother was like you, your great-grandmother was like you, and so on! It'll only go away once you find the one just for you~ Just like how every Aishi woman found their own love, you'll finally be completed! And you must never let that true happiness get away Ayano, no matter what."
But how would she know if she found the one? She asked this to her Mother who simply tittered.
"One day you'll just know when your world just seem to brighten up, your heart thumps so loudly in your chest, and you start to feel as you've never had before!"
Those were the exact same words her Mother had told her each and every time, and she kept those words in her heart. She hoped that one day she would find the one that would bring life into her world.
Her Mother, her beloved Mother with such a cheery smile and a friendly demeanor. So kind, so pure, and Ayano knew her Mother loved her...
But she was such a scary woman. She was strong, smart, cunning, and deadly in all the wrong ways. How else had she been able to... Eliminate all of her rivals that became too close to her Father, purposely or not. And continue to do so to this day? Her Mother ruled over both of them with an iron fist underneath her mimicked expressions.
She made sure that her husband only focused on her and only on her, not even wanting to share him with Ayano. And she made sure that Ayano would turn out exactly like her, passing down all the skills Ayano would need when Ayano found her own love, as per Aishi tradition.
But then one day... Her Mother died.
Disbelief filled Ayano, unable to believe that her Mother had just... Died during her outing when she was grocery shopping, planning to make Father's favorite food, as usual. Her Mother had been at the wrong place at the wrong time, as she had been the only casualty of the shootout. Her Father was as shocked as her when the news came.
Even as they watched Ryoba Aishi's body being lowered down to the ground, even when the both of them were doused in cold rain and the wind blew around them chilling them to the bone, even when their neighbors gave their condolences, they hadn't been able to shake out of their shock.
It would be her Father, Tatsui, who would snap out of it. With one last look at Ryoba's grave, filled with joy, anger, and even sadness, he placed his hands on Ayano's shoulders and lead her to the car. Allowing her in first before taking the driver's seat.
He started the car, turning on the heat up to full blast as they shivered, but they stayed there. Still stewing in their disbelief.
"Father..." Ayano spoke her, sounding so vulnerable. "...What's going to happen to us?"
Tatsui looked at his daughter, and really looked at her.
Ayano Aishi was sure to turn out like her Mother, she was another clone like her after all. Another product of the Aishi Curse. But... Ayano was just a child... His child.
Ayano only had him now.
When Tatsui had been abducted by Ryoba and tied him onto her bed of their new 'home', he was scared out of his mind, unable to understand why this was happening to him. He had seen Ryoba around, she was a strange girl. Very pretty, but very strange with how she watched him from afar, and that when he got to close, she would start blushing and looking away, unable to form sentences around him. But other than he never took much notice of her, more focused on his studies so he could get into a good college and to get a good job. Now he wished he had taken notice of her before, just so he could see how bat-shit crazy she was and run as far as he could away from her.
But there was no way to escape, Ryoba was just too cunning and too clingy to let him ever get away, and so started Tatsui's subsequent hell.
Then one day, Ryoba had announced that she was pregnant with a girl. It had been too early to tell the gender of the child, but the fact that Ryoba was just so confident that it was going to be a girl sent chills down Tatsui's spine. And he knew then...
He had to find a way to stop this horrible cycle.
When the spawn had been born, he had made sure to be prepare to do it. For months he had to live under the roof of Ryoba and the soon-to-be killer, and he had braced himself for what was to come...
Then came the day when Ryoba Aishi had to leave the house to get some groceries, as Ryoba had done every week. But now Tatsui had gathered enough courage to finally go through his plan.
10 minutes after Ryoba had left the house, Tatsui left the kitchen he had been occupying and slowly walked down the hallway. His heart thumping loudly in his chest as he approached the white door with a spawn's name plate in front of it.
Taking a deep breath, he shakily opened the door and stepped in, his hands clammy as he spied the white crib at the corner of the room of the white nursery. And very slowly, urging himself to go faster less Ryoba returned home and punish him for what he was going to do, he approached the spawn.
The spawn was sleeping, its cheeks slightly flushed and its small lips set in a small pout. Its eyes close, not revealing its grey eyes that Ryoba also had. It was breathing gently, and Tatsui watched, slightly enraptured before shaking his head violently.
He didn't come here to watch the spawn breathe! He came here to make sure it stopped breathing! To make sure the end of Aishi ended with this spawn!
All he needed to do was suffocate it. They were young parents; They were bound to make a mistake with their baby. And accidentally suffocating the baby with its blanket was one mistake that they hadn't realized.
Grabbing the pink blanket folded neatly to the side, Tatsui took another deep breath and readied to end its existence once and for all.
It was all for the greater good, he would tell himself with crazed eyes. The world would no longer have to suffer another existence of an Aishi, he would end its curse here and now. Screw what Ryoba was going to do with him, and if she ever got pregnant again, he would just end that existence as well.
He was not going to allow this curse to continue to the next generation.
But all of his plans fell as soon as he brushed the blanket across its face. A yawn escaped from its pouting lips, and black coal eyes opened to look directly at him.
Tatsui froze.
The spawn stared at him.
'End it! I have to end it!' He screamed, trying to force his shaking hands to just press the blankets against its face and end it. No one would think otherwise of its suffocation but the carelessness of its parents.
But then something amazing happened.
The child smiled.
Tatsui dropped the blanket besides her head, and he collapsed. He stared at her through the bars of her crib as she continued staring at him, making soft sounds as she reached forward and touched his shaking hands where they clutched onto the bars almost desperately. Now that he was looking at her, her hands were so incredibly small, so fragile...
She may have looked like Ryoba with her pale skin and her coal eyes and even her black hair, she was not Ryoba.
She was not going to be another copy of Ryoba. Not while Tatsui had a say about it.
"Ayano..." Tatsui whispered, looking at his baby as he slowly picked himself up. Shakily reaching down, he awkwardly held her and brought him to his chest, but smiled with tears running down his eyes as Ayano clutched his shirt, looking up at him with curiosity. "I... Haven't been a good Father lately... But... I'm going to change Ayano... I'll find another way, a better way, to break this curse... You're not going to end up like your Mother. You're going to grow up the way you want to be... I promise Ayano... I... I love you..."
Ayano may have been birthed by that monster, but she was also his. And Tatsui made a promise to himself and to Ayano that she wouldn't walk down the same path as the other Aishi woman.
Now was the chance to change everything.
Leaning forward, he wrapped his arms around the smaller girl and pulled her into a tight hug. Ayano didn't hesitate to reach up and clutch on his wet shirt, burying her face into his chest. If he felt the warm tears staining through his wet clothing somehow, he didn't say anything. Tears of his own were falling, but he had no idea why. Was it out of sadness? Joy? He didn't know.
"It's going to be okay Ayano, everything's going to be okay..." Tatsui whispered, carding his fingers through her soft hair. Unlike how Ryoba would forcefully card his fingers through hers, he was doing it because he wanted to, and he happily noted how much silkier Ayano's hair was in compared to Ryoba's.
"We're going to be okay... I promise..."