{ JJK OC lore, shiunao, past mpreg, nobamaki, tw: misogyny, tw: alcohol mention, 1.7k words }
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1
A few months later…
Naomi was shaking as she held the phone to her ear.
“Dad?”
Shiu’s heart soared just like it did the first time he heard this word from her.
“Yes, my dove?”
Naomi took in a shaky breath, but this pet name made her feel stronger.
“They found his grave.”
Shiu steadied himself by leaning against the table in the dining room where they’d had lunch together a couple of days earlier.
Twenty years of believing his love, reduced to ashes, had been scattered in an unmarked location.
Naomi was quiet for a moment.
“Dad?”
“...Y-yes?”
“Do you want to go see him today?”
Shiu exhaled slowly. He silently thanked Naomi for choosing the day for him. If it was up to him and him only, he would keep running away.
“I think I’m ready.”
“Good. What time can we pick you up?”
•
There were four of them packed uncomfortably in Nobara’s tiny car. Maki was looking out the window, lost in thought, but with one hand between the front seats to hold onto Naomi’s who was sitting in the back with her father.
“It’s gonna be okay.” Naomi told him with a confident smile, and Shiu couldn’t help but feel the corners of his mouth curve up.
“I should be the one comforting you, and look at me…”
Naomi shushed him gently.
“I don’t think so. He was everything to you, and technically speaking, he is nothing to me. I have no memory of him, I still got to grow up with two loving parents… You matter to me because you’re still alive, but how could I mourn him when he’s been dead all my life?”
Shiu wasn’t sure what to say.
“My point is, I haven’t lost him as I never had him in the first place. You’re the grieving one here. If I wanna comfort you, I’ll comfort you.”
A warm smile spread on Shiu’s face, but his eyes were damp.
“You’re such a good kid, Naomi. I wish I’d known you sooner.”
“Now, don’t think about it or you’re gonna cry again!” Naomi cried out jokingly. “Mama, we’re gonna need tissues!”
Maki snapped out of her thoughts and as she began looking for the tissues in the glove box, she couldn't help but think:
*He’s not worth crying over.*
•
The grave’s location had been provided by none other than Satoru Gojo, as he had easy access to the confidential documents that used to belong to the late higher-ups. Kento Nanami did help motivate him to find the right archives from twenty years earlier, as this was a family matter to him. His eldest son, Kenshiro, had been in a relationship with Naomi since high school.
When Shiu learned who was the person he could thank for finding the grave that had remained unvisited for over two decades, he shuddered at the cruel irony. Satoru Gojo. It had been more than thirty years, but this was a name Shiu knew he’d never forget.
His head was buzzing as he walked through the cemetery, passing a large number of headstones more or less hidden behind flowers, fresh or dry.
Naomi eventually slowed down to match his pace and slipped her hand into his.
“I’m beginning to feel it, you know.” She said.
Shiu gave her hand a light squeeze.
“I miss the person you told me about.” Naomi added. “The one who probably wanted to live to keep loving me. There’s this picture you took of him when he was pregnant, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I miss him through your memories. I miss what could have been, but not because I’m sad it didn’t happen to me. I’m sad it didn’t happen to him.”
“Your mother said there was a trail of blood behind him when he was… found. I think… In his last moments, he tried to crawl to your room to protect you from whoever attacked him. That’s the biggest proof I have of his love for you.”
Shiu knew he would never get the full story, but it hurt less now that he had gotten Naomi back. The need to drown out those thoughts in alcohol had lessened, but he knew the urge to drink would follow him for the rest of his life.
How long did he have left with Naomi? How long before his heart, his lungs or his liver gave out?
They eventually came across a headstone covered in ivy and weeds. The gold lettering was faded, but still decipherable. There wasn’t a single trace of any flower having ever been placed on that grave.
Shiu felt his heart clench.
*You’ve been alone for so long.*
But he didn’t have the time to reflect on that thought, as the brown and yellow leaves that had piled up on the grave rustled.
Naomi’s heart skipped a bit. She’d expected a frog, a hedgehog or even a small cat, but instead a worm-shaped curse slithered out from under the dead leaves.
It didn’t really have a face, but what resembled two black, beady eyes stared at Shiu as the creature crawled his way.
“You’re back…” it moaned, its voice barely human anymore and vibrating with curse noises.
Nobody dared move. This curse was weakened, it hardly had any cursed energy left in it.
How long had it been sitting here?
Maki still raised her hand protectively, and the curse noticed her.
Something in it immediately shifted.
“You…” it growled, turning back to Shiu. “It was HER you ran off with? Wasn’t it?!”
It hissed at Maki, puffing up and growing bigger as its anger rose.
“I always knew you were a whore… Good for nothing, you weren’t even the better looking of the two…”
It turned to Shiu again.
“Did she suck you off that good?!”
“SHUT UP!!!” Nobara cried out, and the curse glared at her.
“You got two of them?” He asked Shiu. “Cheating once wasn’t enough for you?!”
“Stop…” Shiu breathed out shakily, feeling like his heart was about to explode.
“Dad…” Naomi said as she put a hand on his shoulder.
The curse did not miss that half-whispered word.
“Which one of them did you knock up? While I was…”
The curse’s uncanny voice broke. It had grown to a small child’s size, but it was still half laying down, its multitude of legs hardly supporting its weight. A slit in its neck opened up, revealing a more human face. It was constricted in painful rage, tears burning its eyes as it cried out:
“HOW OLD IS SHE?? THAT BASTARD CHILD, HOW SOON WAS SHE BORN AFTER I DIED?!”
“NAOYA, IT’S HER!!!”
Shiu’s voice echoed in the sudden silence of the cemetery, broken only by Naomi’s sobbing and Shiu’s heavy breathing.
“You’re lying. You think I haven’t suffered enough, that you have to twist the knife that’s been in my heart for twenty years—”
“No, Naoya.”
Shiu had put an arm around Naomi, holding onto her as she tried to control her own breathing.
This was too much. Twenty years of mystery had just come crashing down.
Still, she felt that twenty years was too little for her to handle it all.
She was just a kid.
“If she was still alive, I would’ve found her. I looked everywhere. Sorcerers kept exorcizing me, but I’d always return. You can’t do this to me…”
Shiu kneeled down to get on eye level with Naoya.
“Look at her. She’s your spitting image.”
He hesitantly tried to touch the curse, to feel him and make sure that he was real too.
Naoya unconsciously leaned into Shiu’s touch.
His breath shuddered when he recognized the beauty spot below the corner of Naomi’s mouth.
“...My baby…?”
Naomi laughed through the tears and sat on the ground in front of Naoya, gently gathering his small frame into her arms.
“Hi…” She choked out, and Naoya broke down. He buried his face into her neck, apologizing over and over again.
Naomi just held him, rocking him gently as if he was the child here.
“It’s okay… But you should also apologize to the women who raised me.”
Naoya pulled away to face Naomi, confusion written on his features that were looking more and more human.
“Raised you?”
When he met Shiu’s eyes to get an answer, the other man could barely talk over the sobs that racked his body.
“I wa- as told you both-... Died in chi- ild- birth…”
Naoya’s eyes widened.
“I was told you’d run off with a woman and abandoned us both…”
Naomi leaned against Shiu who was still kneeling in the dirt and he wrapped his arms around the two of them.
“I only found dad a couple of months ago. Mama Maki found me after you died, and she and mom adopted me.” Naomi said, gently nudging Naoya to look at them.
Though they couldn’t deny Naomi happiness, both Maki and Nobara looked like they weren’t sure whether to rejoice or be wary.
Naoya turned to face them, then bowed his head.
“...I’m sorry.”
He then looked at Maki again.
“For everything.”
Maki simply nodded. This family business was about to become a handful with Naoya in the mix.
“And thank you for taking care of my little girl.”
“No problem.” Nobara said with the tiniest hint of a sneer. She was tired already just imagining having to deal with the man she only knew through Maki’s memories.
But he didn’t seem as bad as what she’d described. Maybe there was hope for him.
“Shiu…” Naoya said hesitantly, and Shiu offered him the smile they’d both missed so much.
“Does that mean… you’re still single?”
Nobody, including Shiu, could hold back a chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Naoya asked, sounding offended. “Is it because I look like a worm?”
Shiu laughed again and bent down slowly to press a soft kiss to Naoya’s lips.
“I never stopped loving you.”
Naoya settled and curled up further into Naomi’s arms, finally feeling at peace for the first time in twenty years.
“I can’t wait to love you.” Naomi told him as she got up from the ground, getting ready to bring him home to the apartment he was supposed to share with Shiu.
She mused at the thought that although her parents weren’t divorced, she’d be living in some sort of joint custody.
In just a few months, she’d gained twice as many parents as she grew up with.
“I can’t wait to love you.” She repeated softly as Naoya was falling asleep in her arms. “I think I already do.”
