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Satoru wasn't surprised when her clan summoned her around a month after her visit with Megumi.
As a rule of thumb, she didn't make contact with the Gojo Clan unless it was absolutely necessary. Her birth had begun to nudge them out of their skewed customs, but they were still misogynistic traditionalists at the end of the day. No worse than any other clan, she supposed. She was fortunate that unlike the Zenin, the Gojo Clan prioritized power over everything else or her father would have gotten his wish years ago.
She materialized in the center of the main house (holding in her dizziness, teleporting wasn't easy) and smirked at the sight that greeted her. "I didn't know it was a party," she remarked. Every elder and her parents? She really must have pissed them off.
"Satoru," said the oldest of the elders, a man named Matsushita. A calm man who didn't often lose his temper; probably because he was too old to get worked up. "Care to explain yourself?"
Satoru shrugged. "Nothing to explain," she answered. She shouldn't have to justify herself; what she did in her personal life was none of their business.
Her father glared at her. "Mind your tongue when speaking to the elders, Satoru," he reprimanded her. Or tried to. Not once since the day she was born had she ever been intimidated by her father and she wouldn't start now.
She ignored him, plopping down in one of the chairs. "Well, let's get on with it. What do you fossils want? I don't have all day, you know." Maybe it wasn't a good idea to antagonize everyone in the room at the same time, but she had never eared on the side of caution. That was Suguru's job.
"I would take this more seriously, child," another elder, the only woman named Muranaka, warned. "You're playing a dangerous game. You risk the status of our entire clan by sponsoring that welp."
A wave of unexpected anger washed over Satoru at the way she referred to Megumi; this was why she couldn't stand being here. They thought they were so much better than everyone because of what? Status? Prestige? None of that mattered; carrying that Gojo name had brought her nothing but misfortune. It was useless at best, a curse at worst.
But Satoru remained composed. They wanted her to lose her temper, she wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
"Not to mention you've taken the Zenin's property," stressed her mother. Yoshimi looked at her with eyes of ice; everyone had always said she had her mother's eyes and Satoru had always hated it. Her mother's eyes were cold, devoid of any affection or life. She hoped she had never looked at anyone like her mother looked at her. "Are you trying to make an enemy out of them? Your actions affect our entire clan, you must know this. I didn't raise a fool, Satoru."
'You didn't raise me at all,' Satoru wanted to scream back. But she just kept smiling. "Ah, Yoshimi, you're missing the big picture. If the only user of the Ten Shadows is with me, that means that the Zenin don't have him. Which means he can't be used against us."
"How can you be so sure, girl?" insisted her grandfather, the youngest of the elders.
She cackled. "You just have to trust me!" she replied casually.
Her father's face was stormy. "I told you we should have married her off when she turned fifteen. She might be strong, but she's still only a girl. A husband would have kept her in line."
Maybe she was being unfair to her mother; if she'd been forced to marry a man like her father she would have been bitchy too.
Muranaka bristled, as if there was only so much sexism even she could take (good for her). "Watch yourself, Kumagai. Remember that your only worth to this clan is that you sired Satoru."
Seta, her favorite out of all the elders purely because he was so loonie, guffawed. "Imagine if you had succeeded in tossing her away when she was a baby!" he jeered. "We just might have executed you!"
Her father looked downright furious, but didn't have the balls to talk back to the elders like she did. Pussy.
Satoru cleared her throat. "As amusing as this all is, we're really getting nowhere." She pressed her lips together, her voice dropping an octave. She watched in satisfaction as they all tensed, eyeing her carefully. "The truth of the matter is, there's nothing anyone in this room can do to stop me. I'm sure you're all aware of that. Not that it matters, in five years or so you'll all be dead anyway."
"Satoru!" hissed her mother.
"You're right," allowed Satoru. "I'm being generous; it's more like three and that's if you're lucky."
Her father glowered at her. "And how will you provide for this boy if we decide to cut you off completely?" he challenged.
"Hmm..." Satoru pretended to think. "I'm sure I could manage. How hard could it be?" She grinned, though it felt more like she was baring her teeth like an animal warding off predators. "But let's be honest with ourselves, I don't think you'd do that."
"And why not?" Yoshimi demanded, attempting to burn a hole through her head with those eyes.
Satoru beamed in response. "Because if you do, then I'll renounce the Gojo name completely."
XXX
Later that night, Satoru popped into the small Fushiguro apartment. She had been inside a few times before, but she still winced at the state of the living space: it was small, rundown, and most of all dirty. Suguru would have had a heart attack the moment he stepped inside. Every time she stepped inside it was a reminder that Toji had left two kids alone to rot here.
They deserved better. She would give them better.
"Satoru!"
She felt the tension leave her shoulders as a tiny blur ran up to hug her legs. "Tsumiki!" she echoed, lifting the girl into her arms and pressing their cheeks together. "I've missed you so much!"
Tsumiki giggled, nuzzling her back. She had opened right up to her, never questioning the strange woman who hung around her and her brother. "You saw me two days ago!"
"Two days too long!" Satoru exclaimed dramatically. And it really was. She missed them every minute she couldn't be with them.
"Tch, so you're here again," remarked Megumi who had followed his sister. He hadn't been quite as receptive, though Satoru wasn't one to be discouraged (her best friend was Suguru Geto). "You're such a weirdo showing up here in the middle of the night."
Satoru grinned and before he could dart away from her, he was also scooped up. "Aw, Gumi, I know you missed me!" she gushed.
He squirmed in her hold. "Let go of me," he hissed like a little cat. How cute.
Tsumiki laughed at her brother's expense. "He did!" she confirmed. "He kept waiting up for you in the living room."
Megumi looked utterly betrayed. "Tsumiki!" he protested.
Satoru cackled, even though her heart must have been glowing in her chest. "Well, I won't be leaving any time soon," she promised them. "In fact, I wanted to ask how the two of you felt about moving into a nicer place..."