Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

BECAUSE I’M RUNNING OUT OF TIME. He could have said, but then this entire plan would have fallen apart, and Asahi couldn’t afford any more setbacks, not when everything hung in the balance. Everything was connected, every little detail had a purpose, a goal. There was a whole world to unravel here, but it wouldn’t be Asahi’s job to do so.

Some people see the future and they cower under the weight of it. Kinzoku Asahi wasn’t like that. He’d seen the future, he’d stared at it right in the face, and in the abyss that had stared back at him, Asahi had concocted a plan. He’d seen the ashes that remained at the end, the blood that coated the ground and the sins of his past. So he built an empire and covered it in gold. And although every empire needs an emperor, it also needs a defender. A weapon, a Warhammer to bring down its enemies. A nightmare so he could tuck in the dreams into bed.

Sometimes, sacrifices need to be made. Sometimes, we are not the ones who make them.

“So, here I am again. Your weapon of choice.”

Mikazuki felt hollow inside, like her heart had been set alight and then snuffed out again. She walked closer, her heels clacking against the marble and echoing against the vaulted ceiling. The sorceress stood directly in front of her father, blocking the view of the mural. He looked old, tired and so done, but she held herself high, looking at him with such intensity he was taken aback.

“Was I ever a daughter to you?”

Her voice broke when she made the question, and maybe she died a little bit inside, too.

“How could you? Nothing about you is real.” Asahi said softly, his expression unlike anything she’d seen before. “I made you up, built you from the ground up.” He pressed his palm against her cheek, thumb brushing away the tears she refused to believe were there in the first place. “Nothing about you is real.”

Nothing about you is real. Mikazuki wished she could tell herself this was another lie, another one of his schemes, but the sincerity of his words stole her breath away. Even if Asahi hadn’t said it, she knew. She’d known from the moment she was born, from the moment she felt the world shift beneath her feet, from the moment the entire Jujutsu society had its eyes trained on her. She wore it on her skin daily, felt it flowing in her veins along with her blood.

Hide had said it first, that day. What had she called her, again? A curated nightmare. Something bespoke, something handmade, but still a dream, nonetheless. Kinzoku Mikazuki wasn’t real, she was something Asahi had made up, a dream he’d concocted, like the myths people used to believe about the Heian Era or about their family.

“Am I even a Kinzoku?” The sorceress asked, already afraid of the possible answer.

You’re a dream. A curated nightmare. The Queen of Nightmares. A Nightmare is just a dream. The words wouldn’t stop, like a cacophony of screams, all superimposed over one another. She felt them cawing at her, like an unkindness of craws circling her head. No matter how hard she tried, the voices wouldn’t stop.

You’re not real. You’re not real. You’re not real.

Everything about you is a lie.

Mikazuki steadied herself, forcing the intrusive voices aside as she fought the bile rising in her throat. Her golden eyes, sharp and unyielding, bore into Asahi’s face, searching for cracks in his stoic mask. She was determined to uncover the truth, no matter how painful.

“Yes,” He said finally, his tone as heavy as the storm outside. “My blood is your blood.”

“Is Hide my biological mother?” She pressed, her voice barely above a whisper.

“She gave birth to you.” Asahi replied, each word measured.

“That’s not what I asked,” she snapped, the sharp edge in her voice cutting through the air like a blade. Silence fell between them, thick and suffocating. “You said you’d tell the truth, so tell it.”

Asahi’s gaze darkened.

“She is not your mother.”

Mikazuki’s breath caught, her heart pounding like a war drum in her chest.

“Is Keisuke my brother?” She demanded.

“As much as he can be,” Asahi said, his voice carrying an enigmatic weight. “Two eggs from different chickens cooked on the same pan.”

Her mind raced, every piece of the puzzle falling into place with excruciating clarity.

“How?” She whispered, her voice cracking under the weight of her fear and confusion.

“The how isn’t as important as the why,” Asahi said, his infuriatingly calm smile never faltering. “Twenty-eight years ago, I was given an impossible task. Léa expected me to fail – she counted on it. She wanted to make me an example, a warning to the other troublemakers who didn’t fully adhere to The Magistrate’s way. It was a lesson, I suppose. A reminder that I would always be under her thumb. I thought that after the twins were born, I might get some respite, but Léa’s heart was filled with venom.”

“Because you chose someone else.”

He’d married Hide, not Léa.

“I only did as she commanded. I had as much choice in my marriage as Hide did. My elders found the arrangement convenient, and as the second-born, I was more than willing to marry the heiress to a prominent clan.”

“A clan that you would massacre years later.”

“Yes,” He admitted without hesitation, his voice devoid of guilt. “Léa was jealous of our union, and she wielded the power of the vow against Hide. She made her lose two pregnancies through it. We buried empty coffins in the garden for each of them.”

“I’m sorry.” Mikazuki murmured, her voice heavy with sorrow.

“Léa’s temper is like a storm, and I was done fleeing from its thundering clouds.”

“You intended to sail through it.”

“I didn’t know how at the time,” Asahi admitted, his gaze distant. “but when the mission came through… I finally found a way to push back.”

“The mission. What happened? And what does this have to do with me?”

“Because everything that has happened since can be traced back to that day – to the moment I made a choice I shouldn’t have, a lie I allowed to fester for years, hoping it would protect me.” He sighed deeply, his shoulders sagging under the weight of his memories.