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When he first heard of the Zenin twins, he was very young.
Only a year older than they were at the time—nearly seven years old and having freshly said goodbye to his mother. A gaping wound in his chest that when he looks back on it must be the reason for his harsh latching onto the concept of responsibility to his clan.
Clan rules and clan meetings—it’s where he hears of the twins. Both girls, one born with weak cursed energy and one without it entirely. A heavenly body pact, so rare and so unlucky that he hears of dangerous and drastic rumors that if not for the girl’s mother they would have been put to death.
Noritoshi has heard of Toji Zenin—quiet whispers in the dark, from the older members of the clan who pretend he is not there or think that he cannot comprehend their words. The man who walks the Earth without a shred of cursed energy, a monster who kills sorcerers as if they were flies. The girl—Maki—could be dangerous like him in the future and her sister—Mai—might as well not exist.
The whispers swirl around him for years, but nothing comes of it. Nothing except his curiosity, but mostly his pity.
He has never met Maki, but he knows what it is like for someone to be abandoned, to be an outcast. Sure, he is the chosen heir now, since his half siblings—not that it was allowed to be spoken about—were not born with the technique. He might have the technique, and he might be the heir, but the elders do not care for him and his fathers wife feels nothing but hatred for him.
It is lonely, but it is something he will endure. If it is for the sake of his mother he can do anything.
—
A meeting is called between the three clans.
Noritoshi is thirteen, and stands up tall as a representative for the Kamo clan with his father. The meeting will be held at the Zenin estate, where he will meet with Zenin Naobito and Gojo Satoru—the other two clan leaders.
It is shocking—since this is his first official meeting with the other clans—Gojo Satoru is disrespectful and crude. Speaking alone for his family as he is the only Gojo present, and he does not try to hide his disdain for being in attendance. While the other clan members speak to each other in backhanded compliments and passive words of poison—Gojo merely speaks his mind, calling out the elders around the room of their faults and speaking things that Noritoshi would be afraid to even think, let alone say aloud.
It is like Noritoshi has been doused with water.
While everyone in the room plays a political game, Gojo Satoru comes in like a wrecking ball.
The adults in the room try to snark back at him, and while they keep polite, Noritoshi can tell it is only because they are afraid of him. Gojo and his family techniques—the six eyes and his infinity.
While Noritoshi finds himself thinking that he agrees with much of what Gojo says—even more shocking than the looks on the elders' faces—he does not have infinity himself.
Noritoshi will have to play the politics game if he is to change anything in his own clan.
He and his father are leaving when he first sees her. A girl standing behind one of the building's corners, watching the men of the meeting filing out—standing tall and looking fierce. Hair black with its green hue tied up in a ponytail, and circle glasses resting on her nose.
They make eye contact and the blood in his veins heat, swirling around his inner circulatory system like molten lava— this is Zenin Maki.
An expression with more conviction in it than any of the men who Noritoshi had spoken with today. She does not break eye contact with him for several seconds, that is until another girl peeks out from behind her—anxious eyes and nervous hands grasping at her clothes and attempts to pull Maki away.
Zenin Mai.
Mai looks exactly like Maki, they are twins after all, but she looks smaller and more frightened. Maki eyes him steely for a moment before taking her sister's hand and disappearing back around the building and out of sight.
—
Noritoshi starts school in Kyoto, far away from Gojo Satoru and his ‘awful and twisted ideas of what Jujutsu should look like.’
It is not his decision, and he has no opportunity to voice his opinion.
Changes in his clan will be slow, and Noritoshi knows that many things will not change until he is officially the head—after his father passes.
Training goes well, there is not much the school can teach him that he doesn’t already know. He meets many other students and they do not speak to him at first, afraid of him and his stoic appearance.
There are two other sorcerers in the first years with him—Todo Aoi and Nishimiya Momo. A tall and muscular man, quick to anger and only interested in a certain idol. A small woman with a broomstick, a curt and cutesy attitude.
The three of them are as different as people can be, but Nishimiya tries to be a team player with him, while Todo stays by himself. They make it through the year—several missions and several moments where he and Nishimiya work in tandem to make use of their techniques. Her way of scoping out from the sky, tiny and practically unseen, lighting her lantern as a way to signal him. His archery has gotten better, nearly to the point where he doesn’t need to use his technique to guide his arrow points at all.
—
When they enter the second year—the Jujutsu world gets interesting.
Zenin Mai enrolls in Kyoto, and Zenin Maki enrolls in Tokyo. No one is there to report what has happened to Maki, just that she had personally renounced her name and left the clan—head held high and weapon drawn for the Zenin clan head position.
Mai refuses to talk about it, barely acknowledges anyone in Kyoto for a few weeks. Clearly unprepared and surprisingly reluctant to be a sorcerer for someone who has enrolled to do it.
Nishimiya, cute and so sympathetic, wriggles her way into Mai’s heart and becomes quick friends. Noritoshi tries not to take offense—as it took nearly half a year for Nishimiya to look at him with an expression that was more than neutral.
They form a close bond, and eventually Nishimiya tells him that the Zenin clan forced Mai to enroll—the act irks him, and the words of his childhood echo in his mind, of a possible execution of two twin girls—perhaps they have decided to go about it in a way that will not directly bloody their hands.
Mai does not open up to him, but she does not scorn him. Noritoshi feels only strong pity for her, still anxious and small just as she was when he first saw her so long ago.
With time she will gain anger in place of fear, her face becomes harsher and her eyebrows a permanent furrow. Furious with her clan and with her forced position in Jujutsu society.
Noritoshi can relate to it—though he is better at keeping a blank face.
Whispers break through the vines of the higher ups and Noritoshi hears of a new special grade sorcerer before the rest of Kyoto. Okkotsu Yuuta has joined the Tokyo school, a classmate of Maki, and he is cursed.
It is interesting, and Noritoshi hopes that he will have the opportunity to meet him soon. Special grade sorcerers are sparse, especially after Naobito retired from active duty.
He ends up getting the opportunity during their sister school exchange event. A monster of a curse, but a kind sorcerer. Noritoshi sits with him and speaks with him—noticing his nerves make him stutter and hesitant. Noritoshi doesn’t hold it against him, and tries to make him more comfortable by asking him about his school, his classes, Gojo, and his classmates —
Maki—Yuuta speaks highly of her—has been doing well, strong and fully capable, despite being a grade four sorcerer. Noritoshi has had suspicions that the Zenin clan has been holding her rank at length. Keeping her below the bare line—simply for dreaming more for herself—and it is a shame .
Noritoshi feels disgusted.
Talent, the kind that Maki and Mai have, is something that could be so useful and create more opportunities for good in their cursed world. If not for the clan’s and their outdated views maybe they could do—
‘Enough .’ Noritoshi thinks—
He can’t allow himself to be riled by something he can’t change. His father has passed, and soon he will be able to take command of the Kamo clan—as soon as he graduates from Kyoto and as soon as the elders approve it.
No matter how much he works on improving the Kamo clan—there is nothing he can do for Maki, Mai, or the Zenin’s.
—
Third year is where he truly meets her for the first time.
Sitting down with the rest of the students of both schools. After the disaster of the individual battles, with the run in against the special grade. His head hurts and is throbbing with pain, but he will not show weakness among his peers.
Maki stands nearby, clearly keeping her distance from Mai—talking quietly with Fushiguro Megumi, another cursed Zenin.
They catch eyes, and Maki finds her way toward his side, away from the others on the stairwell.
“Noritoshi.”
It’s the first time he has been called by his given name in years. The elders and his Father refused to say it. The bad luck it supposedly brings. Even the mention of the black stain on the Kamo Clan. As if Noritoshi had anything to do with that ghost.
Out of Maki’s mouth it sounds almost respectable.
A moment passes, “Maki,” he decides on instead of ‘Zenin’ . Something tells him that she would not appreciate that mistake.
“Megumi told me about your fight against the special grade. It’s a shame I couldn’t see it for myself.”
A shame is certainly one way to put it. The pounding in his head seems to mock him with every moment. Maki does not seem to think so.
“In the single battles,” Her eyes shine bright—fierce and full of confidence, “I hope you are paired up with me .”
Noritoshi briefly considers how he originally wanted to be paired off with Fushiguro Megumi, but they had their chance during the group stage. He had a chance to throw forward his comradely and was able to see the Ten Shadows technique himself.
A quick glance around the room, and well—
“I hope so as well.”
There isn’t anyone else he’d rather challenge.
—
Gojo Satoru gets sealed away, and the entirety of Kyoto is late to Shibuya.
—
Nishimiya has already told him about Mai.
It’s with that tragedy in mind that softens the blow of the man sitting in the room that was meant to be his . The pillow on the floor might as well be a throne and the King that sits upon it barely casts him a glance before tearing everything that he has worked for down into the spiralling pits of curses that dwell within his cursed body.
Geto Suguru wasn’t in his shell of a body anymore—and Noritoshi no longer belonged in the Kamo home.
Thinking of Mai and her cold, dead, and cursed life—leaving behind Maki who, as far as he knew, decided to keep going—albeit there is no more Zenin clan—Perhaps Noritoshi should follow in her footsteps.
—
Maki is striking.
Noritoshi has always thought so—tall, confident, and willing to push further than any other person he has met.
But even now, with burns scars and singed hair cut short—the remnants of wounds from Shibuya—she is still as focused and in control as she has always been.
“I like you better this way—Especially without that awful hairstyle.”
Zenin Naoya never stood a chance.