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"You're always talking about how Megumi reminds you of who you were when you were younger," Tsumiki finally says. "What about me?"
It's a regular afternoon, except Satoru needed to pick Tsumiki up early. Her class teacher had called him, as her guardian, because she said she wasn't feeling well. She doesn't seem unwell though - even his Six Eyes don't detect anything medical - but she does seem wildly unhappy. The kind of unhappy that spawns curses.
So they'd gotten ice-cream together, and were sitting in the park, idling time until it would be time for Satoru to pick Megumi up.
"You don't need to feel left out," he says, and he tries to make it reassuring, but she looks at him with those eyes - too full of emotions, and it makes something twist in his gut. "Miki, you're my best girl, okay?"
Tsumiki doesn't look reassured. The expression on her face is better suited to Megumi's face - on him it'd be neutral, but on her it's clearly upset. Mouth a straight line. What she's thinking is unreadable.
"I'm nothing like you," she says, quietly.
Satoru puts his ice-cream aside for a moment, ignoring how it melts into the cup unappetizingly. He takes her much smaller hand in his.
"Thank god for that," he says. And he really means it.
She holds his hand, but she still seems unconvinced.
"Megumi and I are in a pretty unique position, Miki," he says to her. "Because of the Jujutsu world. Growing up for me was lonely - and I don't want him to feel like that. It's not as apparent now, but as he grows older it's going to be more more visible. People will treat him less like a human, and more like a status symbol, or a tool. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
And sure, she's just eight, but she's always been a bright kid. She nods.
"But see, here's the thing, sugarplum." He shifts his thumb, back and forth across the back of her palm. "I don't want you to feel lonely growing up either. I know things have been difficult for you. Especially before. You were taking care of Megumi, but who was taking care of you?"
"Toru," she says, quietly. "It's not - I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, I promise."
"You are the sweetest person I've ever met, you know that?" he smiles at her reassuringly, and she looks at him, the fear gradually ebbing out of her expression. "I think you're allowed to complain if you want, okay?"
Tsumiki shrugs. "I'll think about it."
"That's all I ask," Satoru says. He squeezes her hand, takes his ice-cream again, begins to eat it. "You know, you do remind me of someone I once knew."
Tsumiki's eyes sparkle. "Yeah? How come you've never mentioned them?"
He doesn't tell her the whole truth, of course. He doesn't mention Toji, the pool of blood, the weight of her body when he'd collected her from the Time Vessel Association. But he owes her the truth anyway, even if it's heavily abridged.
"Because she's no longer with us, and I miss her every day," Satoru says. "Her name was Riko."
It's true. Tsumiki has the same restrained wonder, like she's in love with the world but doesn't think she's allowed to be. She's as prone to smiling and putting on a cheerful aura, no matter how conflicted she actually is. Satoru had to learn to become like that - he certainly wasn't that way as a child, nor is Megumi - but Tsumiki is.
Riko had simple dreams, simple pleasures. She liked spending time with her friends. She liked the beach, the aquarium. She liked swimming and she liked volleyball and she liked watching anime on cable TV. Tsumiki is similar, with her love for constellations and star-gazing, her excitement for going to school, the way she spent a whole summer learning how to fly kites, and then the science behind making them.
And sometimes, when Tsumiki giggles with glee, or gives him that look like she thinks he's being silly, it hits him all over again. Déjà vu, and grief. The painful feeling of something similar enough but not an exact copy.
"Riko would've loved being like a big sister to you," Satoru says. "She was like a little sister to me."
"Tell me about her," Tsumiki says.
And so Satoru does. He tells Tsumiki about her interest in marine biology, her love for the beach, her distaste for mountains. About the way she was so in love with life, so in love with experiencing things. About how even when she was afraid, she somehow managed to see the best parts of every situation.
Tsumiki listens, enraptured. And when he's finally out of words, and he admits, a little embarrassed, "I didn't know you were lonely, Tsumiki, I'm sorry," she shakes her head, and shifts, gives him an impulsive hug.
"I'm not," she says, quietly. "Not always."
"Still," Satoru says, as she shifts a little, not enough to leave the embrace of his arms, but enough to see his face. "I made you feel Megumi's my favourite. That's not right."
Tsumiki's grinning when she says, "Megumi's my favourite, so it's okay."
"He'd say that about you, you know. If you tell him you're mad at me, he'll probably kick me or step on my feet." Satoru also grins.
Tsumiki looks aghast for a second, before she registers the grin on Satoru's face. Then, she just smiles back.
"Yeah, he definitely would." She sighs, deeply. "Violence isn't the solution to all his problems."
Satoru smiles, not sure how to tell her that violence will be the solution to most of Megumi's problems in the near future. The Jujutsu world is quite unforgiving. But he sees the innocence in her expression, and he knows he can't take that away. He shrugs.
"Speaking of Megs," he says. "Let's pick him up from school, yeah?"
"Okay!" Insecurities apparently resolved, Tsumiki springs up, grinning.
Satoru takes off his glasses, props them on her face, just to hear her giggle. He'll probably have a headache later, but it's okay. It's worth it.
It's obvious from the shift of her body language that she feels like cool shit, wearing his glasses. That's all he's wanted to do for her, really. Make her know her worth. Sorcery didn't matter as much as this, as her knowing that there would never be another Tsumiki Fushiguro to walk the planet, and that she was special, unique, and loved.
So he lets her sit shotgun, lets her choose the music. And when they have finally picked Megumi up, he proposes they go and get ice-cream again.