บท 54: Legacy
"Arai." Maki said.
"Yeah?"
"Can you put me down?"
"I too want to be put down."
"Mai I'm sorry since you didn't do anything wrong but as twins you need to take responsibility for yourselves."
The twins were being carried like bags by Arai. Maki was trying to get out of his grasps while Mai just laid there not resisting. He was walking down the street so the sight of him grabbing two children like this certainly made misunderstandings. He even had been stopped by the cops once but after explaining everything they left after apologizing for stopping him.
"Dad why are we here?"
"To see an old friend." Arai said before knocking on the door ignoring the 'Please don't call him dad.' murmur that he heard in the background.
"Coming!" They heard a girlish voice shout as the sound of steps coming closer was heard.
The door finally opened for them to see a black haired girl in the doorway. She wore an apron and held a spatula in her hand.
"I'm sorry I was cooking something!" She looked at everyone but stopped when seeing Arai. Her eyes immediately brightened at seeing him.
"Arai!" She jumped at him and hugged him tightly making him throw the twins in the air before catching them with his arms when she hugged him.
"What in god's name..." Maki muttered shocked. "Is he maybe... actually popular?!"
"*Sigh* No I'm not. This is Haibara Eino. A good friend of mine." He said before breaking up the hug.
"A friend? My god, he has a friend. THE Arai has a friend." Maki said walking in circle and sweating while biting her nails as if she was having an existential crisis.
"Maki you don't have to overreact like that..." Mai said as she chuckled nervously while scratching her cheek.
Eino finally noticed the twins there and was puzzled. Arai would never be the type of guy to hang out with anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. The only exceptions would of been her brother and Nanami.
"I forgot to ask but who are the little girls, Arai." She asked curious.
"Well... it's kind of complicated but they're my kids."
"Nu-uh! I think of you more like an uncle."
"I think of you like a dad."
"WHAT!!" She screamed.
She had dropped her spatula the moment Mai had said 'dad'. Eino screamed so loud that even the neighbors jumped.
"Haibara, you're disturbing the neighbors."
She recovered after Arai scolded her and put on a smile. "Ahem! We'll talk inside, please make yourselves at home."
The kids immediately dashed through the house and ran everywhere. Well it was more like Maki running everywhere and Mai following her sister.
"Sorry about them."
"Don't worry about it."
There was an awkward silence as the two were left there.
"What is going on? Arai has a kid! No, he has two and they're twins! They look like they're 7 or 8, so that means he would of had that kid when he was 14 years old! Who's the mother? Is she here with them and will come eat dinner with us? When did he meet her? He got married... at 14 years old at that!"
Eino muttered the entire shipload of questions to herself while Arai facepalmed.
"Haibara, get a hold of yourself."
Realizing her mistake, she faked coughed and clasped her hands together. "So! What did you come here for? If you told me earlier I would of made dinner for us all."
"I already ate dinner with them so don't worry about that. As for why I'm here..." He placed down a 12 pack cans of beer and smiled. "You're 18 today, right. Let's drink."
"Really? No taking pictures, no delicious dinner, no wishing, just chugging down beer cans? Isn't that kinda... pathetic?"
"Well I'm not in the festive mood."
She rolled her eyes. "When are you ever?"
"Do you want them or not?"
Eino felt reluctant and she kept glancing at the can of cold beer and Arai and a realization dawned on her.
"Wait I forgot to ask but how is this cold? Like where did you even put this, don't tell me it was in your pocket the whole time."
"Oh changing the subject are we. Alright, I'll take the bait. So tell me what score did you get in your exams again?"
With a swift moment one of the cans was taken and popped open before being chugged down by Eino. Who after a gulp immediately stopped and held her mouth in disgust.
"Ugh! Bitter!"
"If you think that's bitter than just try American beers." Arai sniggered before taking a sip of his own beer.
"Thank god I'm not going there then."
There was a silence as Arai continued drinking while Eino looked at him. She seemed annoyed before sighing knowing that Arai wasn't going to say anything until she started.
"So mind telling me what you are really here for or are we just going to beat around the bush."
With his drink finished, he crushed the can and threw it in the garbage and narrowed down his eyes at her.
"What did I tell you happened when your brother died."
This made her lean back, the topic of her brother was always taboo to her. It made her uncomfortable just talking about it and she didn't want it to be brought up. But she knew that Arai was not one to talk without any purpose.
"You told me he died in a car accident, but I know better. Are you finally going to tell me the truth now that I'm old enough?"
The day Haibara died was not the day that she was told. Having gone missing for 3 days, she panicked and even called the cops not knowing what to do. No parent to tell to, no adult to lean on, they had to depend on themselves to live.
Together they were supposed to live.
Then Arai came knocking at her door, she was relieved at first knowing that Arai was a close friend of her brother but that relief slowly turned into despair. Arai came here patched in bandages covering his eyes and arms, even needing a arm sling to hold his right arm. If Arai, someone who always hung around Yu was injured, then what could of happened to her brother.
And Arai back then in the broken mental state did not take into account her emotions and simply said:
"Haibara Yu is dead, Eino. I'm sorry."
No moment to take it in, nor to build it up, just having said it bluntly and leaving a message detailing what happened and all the financial money given to her. Though she later forgave him as she understood, something always felt wrong.
Can a car accident really do this?
Things began railing off track as she searched for clues, she had seen the corpse of her sibling.
The injuries, they could not be done by a car. Scorch marks, bite marks, things like that weren't even covered up. It was like someone had purposefully done this and wanted to show her.
"Eino." Eino froze for a second.
"What is it?" Arai had actually said her first name. He had never done so for anyone and it felt kind of off-putting.
"Pay attention." Arai said as he opened the palm of his hands and his eyes glowed green.
"Release." He said in a low tone.
At that moment, Eino could feel it all around her. The large amount of cursed spirits around her, crawling and passing through the walls of her house like they belonged there. She jumped out of her chair with her face full of terror.
"What the fuck are those things?!" She screamed in fear.
"Hm... you seem less scared than I expected. Makes sense since this isn't the first time." Arai said as he popped open a new drink.
"Arai! Help me here!"
"I am. I am letting you see them."
"You're letting them- no that isn't important right now. Just get rid of these things if you can!"
"Alright, alright. Conceal." Arai waved his hands and they disappeared from her vision.
She slammed the table and shouted. "Mind explaining me what is going on! Is this some kind of prank on a tv show or something."
"If you want that can be your truth."
"Truth?" Eino asked confused about what Arai was trying to say.
"Truth is what we dictate, your truth before today was that no such thing as spirits and otherworldly powers existed. Now you will choose whether or not you want to have knowledge of these creatures." Arai said as he stood up and walked behind her.
"You wanted to know why I came here, right? I'll tell you. It's because of the powers you possess. The cursed technique dwelling in your body. I'll be taking it for myself, no matter what your decision is."
"Technique? Spirits? I don't-"
"You don't need to." Arai cut her off and placed his hands on her shoulders making her shake in fear.
"Just know you have two options, one: remember everything that happened and know you cannot do anything about it for your whole life. Or two: forget everything that happened today and continue your normal life."
"Arai, please calm down." She said as she herself calmed down and turned around. Looking at Arai, one could see the dark expression he adopted with his hands clenched together. He didn't even look at her.
He looked ashamed and guilty.
A guilt that he had harbored when her brother died.
She knew that look, the same one when he had delivered her the news.
"Tell me what you really came here for." She said as she sat him down.
There was a silence between the two as none of them spoke. Multiple times could she see Arai's mouth open only to close. He brought his hands together and placed it upon his temple not letting her see his face.
That was the only way he could say it to her.
"You wanted to know who killed your brother. That's them. Those spirits embody our negativity, humanity's. Our negative thoughts and emotions turn and twist into these malformed creatures and two of the higher-ranking ones fought me, Nanami and your brother. At the end, he sacrificed his life to protect me instead of himself which is why I'm alive and he's not."
"... so that's what happened." Her hands clenched the couch's head.
"I need your help, I want to become stronger and I need to get more techniques. Yours is the same as your brother's. You don't know this since I've erased that memory from when you were younger."
"You erased my memory!"
"That's right."
She gritted her teeth and slammed her fist down the table breaking it. Her fist glowed blue with cursed energy but it seemed that she was unaware as she continued yelling at him.
"Since when was it just alright to take away someone's memories! You can't just take away that from me, I can't even trust you anymore. Who knows what else you've done to me!"
"Well, I've done only one more thing."
"And that is?!"
"To block you from ever being a sorcerer, I won't let you become one. That was your brother's last wish, to not let you become a sorcerer." Arai said as he reminisced his failure.
"Then why tell me?"
"Because you're old enough to make your own decisions and to know the truth so I told you." Arai shrugged. "I'm asking sincerely, all you will need to do is give me your permission and I will handle the rest."
"Tch! That's just like you, hiding away secrets and not letting anyone else know." Eino crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.
"I'm just being prudent."
Leaving her time to ponder, Arai secretly ordered his cursed spirits to come back. Each crawled their way into his ears until there were none left while he erased all residue of their presence. Though after a moment, Eino stood up looking down on him.
"Fine, I'll do whatever it is you want me to but I'll keep this memories. Even if I don't get to do anything because of it."
"Are you sure? Ignorance is bliss, not knowing the truth is sometimes a better remedy than acknowledging it."
"Like you just said, I'm simply being prudent."
"Eino, there is no going back after this." Arai said seriously. "You won't be able to live a normal life after this. You'll be able to see cursed spirits but you won't take practice in exorcising them. Of course if they attack you, you will have to but otherwise you won't move a muscle."
"You don't have to reexplain, I know. So don't worry and let's get on with it."
Arai smiled genuinely as he could see the similarities between her and her sibling. The two were alike, so alike that they were a mirror to one another. "Your brother would of been proud if he saw you."
A chuckle escaped her mouth, seeing Arai emotional made her forget about the sorrow. "I think you're mixing up proud and happy."
Arai smiled and his eyes glowed green, his left hand was still at the table with its palm open indicating that he was waiting for Eino to place her hand onto his.
"Are you ready?"
She was about to say yes but then her eyes caught a glimpse of green hair. Her head turned and there she saw the twins glancing at her with their mouth wide open. She giggled at their behavior's knowing that they were surprised to see Arai actually interacting with someone without the usual coldness.
He had changed.
And this act will change her as well.
"As ready as you are." She said as she placed her hand onto his.
This act had the purpose of connecting them, one would become a part of the other.
But Arai had specifically designed this reverse cursed technique after intricacies and problems arising. It wasn't perfect but good enough.
What problems arose could be solved with his cursed technique.
Like blocking her from having access to his technique with pacts. Stop her from accessing his mind while letting him be able to enter hers. He was blocking her from a multitude of affairs.
In the end, Arai cannot change himself completely. He is and will always be a control freak.
And that, would cost him something very dearly.
To take, one must give.
That is the principle of Jujutsu.
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{AN: Time to start the main timeline.}
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