A/N: Sorry for the late upload, I'd give an excuse but I don't have one, just untreated clinical depression and not enough riches to buy happiness :P.
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By the time evening began to roll into night, we found our conversation coming to a natural ending. Not because there is nothing left to discuss of course; but because we have discussed enough that we each need some time to consider all that has been learned privately.
It's a much better way for us all to advance. If we just kept talking, then any progress we make will only be some smattered, Frankenstein creation of all of our minds. Better instead to do our own thinking, propose our own theories and make our own discoveries.
That way, when next we talk there will be a much greater sum total of knowledge to be gained.
It's mutual beneficence. The only way that selfishness can be a boon for more than only the self in question.
Regardless, Sukuna had me teleport him away and I ignored Kamo-Sensei when he asked the same—Kamo-Sensei is weaker than me after all, what's he gonna do about it?—which leaves me free to move on to the next item on my long list of things that built up during my hibernation.
But first! Back to Tamamo! She must see our kinda-child! And hopefully not be mad!
It only takes a moment to find her shadow since she's in roughly he same place, not that it would have taken much longer if she weren't anyway but that's besides the point. A twist of will has the towering pillar of my shadow extend a tendril through the non-existence between Realms directly to Tamamo's own.
She doesn't turn as I emerge behind her, specifically because she was expecting me to, not the opposite. It'd be tough for her to miss the feeling of our shadows conjoining I think.
"Tama-Mae-no-Mae-mono-fuhhhck," My greeting falls into a quiet sigh as I gently fall against her back, my arms wrapping around her stomach and my chin falling on her shoulder. She tilts her head only enough to meet my eyes with one of her own, an amused smirk clear on her lips.
I lean forward just a bit more to peck those lips with a kiss before pulling back enough to more comfortably lean my head against hers.
"I messed it up, it's really hard to say." My complaint is met with a faint hum as I sound out the nickname I was going for more slowly. "Tama, Mae, no, mamo, no-Mae... I ain't even gonna try again."
That gets a huff out of her before her tails push back against me enough to force me to sit, another two tails moving behind me to act as pillows to lean against. Tamamo remains in my arms, leaning back against me like I'm her bed. It leaves her in a position where she has to tilt her head up to meet my eyes instead of to the side.
"I will never complain of your presence, Dear, but why are you back so soon? Did you forget something?"
"I'd say I forgot how beautiful you were but that'd be a lie, and probably not half as charming as it sounded in my head besides." She smiles at the flirting regardless. "Congratulations, you're a father~."
Her smile fades, a confused raising of the brow taking its place.
"What."
I think that's fair enough, I probably could have shared the news better... I just couldn't think of a good way to tell her about Kon so I panic-defaulted to whatever's funny.
"You impregnated me," I reaffirm without changing my expression at all. Never let it be said that I do not double-down.
"What."
"You see, when a mummy and a daddy love each other veeery much—"
"Narauko."
"Yes Papa?"
"Start from the beginning else I will teach you the wonders of being a woman."
Never have I bore witness to a more terrifying threat in my life.
"Yes Heika!" My mind delves into my shadow and Kon eagerly latches on to my attention from where she was... What the fuck? You can do that? "Kon."
From our side, Kon bursts out of the floor and immediately bounces around twists to face us, setting her head low on her front paws and leaving her haunches in the air, tail wagging violently. You'd think she's more dog than fox like this, but I guess it's not like foxes don't act similarly, especially since she's an excited pup, fresh to the world.
"What is this?" Tamamo asks, staring straight into Kon's expectant eyes. I can tell that the question is more than just the obvious. She feels something and is more asking about that since it is new and she doesn't have any context to understand it.
I am curious though...
"What do you think?" My question is one of fully open curiosity, so Tamamo does me the kindness of answering properly.
"I feel something... A connection? It feels like there is a... tether, of some sort, connecting me to your Shikigami. It is making me feel... affectionate? Protective? What did you do, exactly?"
Despite the repetitiveness of it, I naturally don't hesitate to re-explain everything that I'd just gotten done telling my friends. It would be insanely absurd to do anything but explain the situation fully and entirely after all.
"So in essence," I finish with an amused smirk that I can't quite hide. "You fertilised my Shikigami, thus impregnating me and thus becoming a father... kinda... Yippie? Please give a response of any kind or I'm liable to start panicking."
Tamamo remains inscrutable. Simply observing Kon with what I would describe as a critical eye if the rest of her face was showing any expression at all.
However, a moment later the expression crumbles as a wry smile grows in its place and continues to grow now that she's failed to suppress it until she is fully grinning with delight.
A deep swell of relief flows over me at that, and just looking in her eyes is enough to know that she was making me sweat on purpose.
"You are, without a doubt, the strangest man I have ever met. I love you." Tamamo confesses before rising off of me and twisting around to wrap her arms around my neck and kissing me quite forcefully on the lips.
I, naturally, do not complain about this development. Though, it is over all too soon as she pulls back away and rises fully, turning properly to Kon's much larger form and holding her fluffy cheeks in both hands.
"Hello, Kon. I am glad to meet you."
Kon's vulpine lips twist into a grin before the fox's form rapidly shifts and tackles Tamamo to the floor as a fellow Kitsune—or, a fake Kitsune anyway.
"Papa!" Kon exclaims with joy and I immediately snort at the unexpectedness of it. I can feel Kon's entire everything after all—she is still my Shikigami—so I know that she said that specifically because she was paying attention earlier and wanted to play a little prank.
A successful prank at that for how Tamamo sputters, far more embarrassed to hear that word from Kon than from me.
Technically, it would be more accurate to say that Kon is only like, half my child and way less than that related to Tamamo. Technically. Realistically, however? From the moment I gave her a Soul, I'd already decided that I would treat Kon as a daughter in truth, and now that I see the way Tamamo looks at her?
Well, I don't think my decision was a unique one.
With Kon snuggling against her, Tamamo sends me a pleading look. It's a familiar position in my mind, like when you see someone sitting down with a cat in their lap and realise that they are stuck forever.
Because obviously Tamamo could free herself from Kon's snuggling if she wanted to, but what kind of cold-hearted bastard would do such a thing?
Which is why instead of granting her any measure of freedom, I simply join the pile and hug them both.
Late as it already is, and with Kon clearly making herself comfortable without any intention of moving, we wind up falling asleep like that. Though, Kon doesn't technically sleep but that's somewhat complicated to explain and pedantic besides.
I doubt I've had a more comfortable night's sleep before in my life.
Next morning came with a calm comfort. Slow and relaxed and punctuated by a lot of small questions. Mostly Tamamo asking Kon about herself and Kon figuring out her answers while I make crumpets.
"You really do not consider yourself a Kitsune, Kon?" Tamamo asks for what I believe is the... fourth? Time. Worded differently each time, but the core of the question has been repeated.
Kon shakes her head without a concern, throwing her bright pink hair all over the place. There's no hesitation to her denial even when she knows that Tamamo is hoping for the opposite. That's important to notice; I think it's a good thing. Means she's confident enough in herself to make her own choices in life.
Only a day and you're already making your old man proud~.
Kon's head snaps to me as I have the thought and I watch as her face both burns and lights up with a truly dazzling smile. She is my Shikigami after all; that connection goes both ways.
Still, she turns back to Tamamo as I approach with three plates of crumpets and gives a proper answer.
"I am a Shikigami," she states the declaration with a familiar sort of unwavering surety. "The best Shikigami," she continues, and my lip twitches as I predict where this is going, "Number one in the world! I can only pretend to be a Kitsune because as a Kitsune I will only ever be a fake; but as a Shikigami... I can be The Strongest."
At that, I can't help but laugh; loudly and unrepentantly before stopping next to Kon and hugging her tight against my chest. Then, with a truly happy smirk I turn to Tamamo.
"I am The Strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer," I tell her, and Tamamo rolls her eyes with fond amusement at my words and tone; and possibly the wiggling of my brows as well.
Then, with an entirely faked sigh of exasperation, Tamamo folds under our combined expectant stares and makes her own declaration. Though her tone remains as dry as sand and clearly is only spoken to play along with us.
"I am The Strongest Kitsune." The droll tone doesn't match her smile at all, especially when Kon laughs and it's just...
It's hard to describe, but when Tamamo and I meet eyes a second later, I'm certain we both feel the same.
That Kon's laughter is just the most beautiful sound of all.
Conversation pauses as we eat, though Tamamo and I don't get to eat much as Kon voraciously devours her entire meal and then half of ours each when we offer. She doesn't just steal from our plates; she was born fully grown after all. She may be young, but she doesn't really need to be taught how to behave or anything.
Certainly convenient I guess, though it feels kind of gross to think the word 'convenient' in relation to my daughter.
"Do you have any dreams, Kon?" Tamamo asks once our food is no more. "Is there anything you want to do?"
As Kon puts a finger to her chin and thinks the question over, Tamamo sends me a look, as if I would ever try to restrict Kon just because she is my Shikigami.
"Hmmm, well, I wanna help my Master and travel around. I also wanna sleep in his shadow and under the sun... I wanna eat good food?" Kon pauses again in thought, her finger tap-tap tapping against her chin. Then, an idea seems to come to her as she looks between Tamamo and I and smiles brightly. "I want someone to Love me as much as my Master Loves you!"
I can't help but grin at both those words and the light dusting of pink that grows on Tamamo's cheeks as she hears them. I don't tease Tamamo with my eyes for long, turning instead back to Kon with a playful pout.
"I Love you just as much, don't I?"
Kon nods her head without hesitation. "Yeah, but you don't Love me like you Love Papa, it's a different kind of Love."
I repress a laugh at the repeated use of 'Papa'. She's only choosing specifically to refer to Tamamo as her father because she thinks it's funny, which it is.
"Your Soul has told me a lot about Love," Kon continues, apparently not done explaining, "About Shikigami and Humanity too. But, do Sorcerers really love their creations? I am a Shikigami created by you, so I know that you love me, but you're an exception not the rule, right? I know you love me because you don't have a choice not to, but would any other Sorcerer ever think to love me, or any Shikigami? Or course, I will love them either way, isn't that how you made me?"
A silence falls on the room as Tamamo and I take in Kon's, frankly horrifying implication. Sometimes, it's really easy to forget that as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, I Curse everything that I touch. Sometimes... not so much.
But, she's not entirely right, and I need her to understand that.
"I did not make you to be anything or to serve any specific purpose. You might understand my Curse, but you haven't inherited it. You don't have to love anything, Kon, and I can tell you with certainty that there will be others who love you just as much as I do."
Kon shrugs, clearly not bothered at all by her words, failing to understand why they would bother me and giving up on figuring it out.
"I have another question," Tamamo begins after a brief silence, facing me as she moves the conversation away from the specifics of free will. To which I am grateful, because I have no idea how to handle that conversation in this circumstance. "I understand the process of Kon's conception, so I understand why she looks like a mirror image of myself, but why is the shade of her fur the only exception? Black fur and pink hair to my blonde, I would assume it to be your influence but for the pink?"
The inane question succeeds in bringing the mood in the air back up, mostly by chance if I'm being honest because it just happens to hit upon a pretty funny story. I communicate my gratitude to Tamamo with a look before allowing a slight smile to take over my features as I turn to my side just in time to meet eyes with Kon doing the same, causing us both to snicker.
"Her hair and fur was white," I am quick to explain, because it would be unfair to share a moment with Kon and exclude Tamamo from it and also because it's a much more comfortable topic, "But she changed it to pink to poke fun at Sukuna."
Kon laughs again, evidently amused by her own actions. It was funny to be fair, though a little bit odd at the same time. She jumped straight into my shadow after she changed her hair to hide behind me from any retaliation. Only, Sukuna didn't retaliate, or do much of anything really beyond scowl and roll his eyes.
I'm not stupid enough to believe that he's suddenly learned mercy, rather it's just that he's... changed. I mean, obviously, but like... I dunno. He's gotten less predictable I guess.
On another note...
"Hey Tamamo," I begin, waiting for her attention before continuing, "Can you say Kon's name again for me?"
She raises a brow but doesn't bother with he inane question of 'why?'.
"Kon."
I nod. "I thought so," my musing gets both of their attention so I don't leave them waiting. "You're pronouncing it wrong, it's Kon."
"...That is the same?"
Kon shakes her head. "It's not."
"Oh... Kon?" Tamamo tries again, but it still isn't right, though I'm not even entirely sure what's wrong about it. I just know that it's off in some indescribable way.
"Kon," I repeat, getting a dry look in return that has me thinking that Tamamo is suspecting a prank.
I really am just trying to figure out what's missing though.
"Kon. I am not noticing a difference."
I'm not either to be honest, except that I am. That's weird, right? It sounds the same but it doesn't feel—
"It's 'cuz you're not Cursing my name," Kon interjects, her voice as casual as one discussing the weather, almost absent as she doesn't even look up when she says it, digging around through the table's shadow instead.
A moment later, she pulls her arm out of my shadow with a look of triumph and plops the kiseru that Tamamo got me in her mouth before leaning back in a slouch; only then noticing both of us looking at her.
I snatch the kiseru out of her mouth and put it back in my shadow. "You're too young to smoke."
Kon pouts but shrugs any complaints away anyway. She was just trying out something that she vaguely thought was cool. She doesn't necessarily have any of my memories—though she does have her own from before she had a Soul—but she does have certain impressions from me. So I'm assuming it's because I can imagine someone smoking a pipe like she did in the position she slouched in and think it's 'cool'. So she was just following some vague instinct of what's 'cool'.
It's interesting.
"What do you mean?" Tamamo asks, and Kon blinks as if she genuinely needed a moment to understand what Tamamo was asking about, and I can guess that that makes sense too.
Imagine an alien with knives for hands and an alien with feathers for hands trying to understand why only one of them can touch you without hurting you if neither alien naturally understands the concept of being cut.
"I'm a Shikigami," Kon says again with a slight shrug. "I'm not a Curse but I'm closer to that than either of you. My flesh is Curse, so obviously my name is a Curse too?"
Tamamo's face pinches slightly, and though the problem here is clear, I'm not sure if there's really a solution. Kon sure likes making difficult conversations, no that's not fair to her. It's more that this is the natural complication of us attaching the 'identity' of a daughter to a Shikigami.
Tamamo doesn't want to Curse Kon, after all. She likely straight up isn't capable of it. I'm the weird one for being able to Curse with Love. Yet, if she does not Curse Kon's name, then she will never really address her honestly.
It's a morel dilemma that I'm not sure either of us can really answer. A Shikigami is fundamentally not a living being. What I've done by giving life to Kon goes against that and now we're left with the question of whether Kon should be treated as a Shikigami or a living being when she is both.
It's like... the comparison is crude, but imagine if your toaster came to life. Would you still use it as a toaster? Wouldn't that be objectifying to treat a living being as a tool? Or would it instead be insulting to deprive the tool of its fundamental purpose?
Children should only be shown love, yet Shikigami are literally manifestations of Cursed Energy.
So how do you love a Shikigami without Cursing it?
How could anyone but me Curse a child that they love?
"Hey what were you doing the other day?" I abruptly ask Kon, moving the conversation away from something that will only hurt Tamamo and has no answers. This parenting thing is a lot harder than I gave it credit. "After you hid away from Sukuna?"
"Hm?" Kon perks up slightly in visible thought before ducking her head as she remembers. She's awfully expressive, it's very cute. "I was stretching my Technique!"
Kon's excited answer is immediately followed by a wave of her han—
Between one moment and the next, our idyllic morning is broken as my heart drops and a shattering noise as my shadow erupts behind me like a volcano, Reflective Tortoise's shell manifesting in a wide arc as I twist my own body with such force that the wooden flooring shatters into dust and the air cracks.
Matching with me, almost perfectly in synch, Tamamo appears by me side, the table that separated shattering as she simply moved through it, tearing the atmosphere as easily as the wood as she imposes herself beside me with two tails poised forward like vipers while the rest circle around Kon still seated behind us both.
And then... nothing.
What?
A beat passes with the only movement being the settling of dust as Tamamo and I both stare around us in suspicion, but...
Nothing happens.
I turn enough to meet Tamamo's eyes, seeing her expression as focused as my own and I only realise my brows were furrowed when I feel them relax, though my heart remains determined to leap out of my chest.
I turn away from Tamamo to check on Kon only to see her staring at us both with her mouth hung wide open and eyes blown wide. More importantly, I sense from her a growing embarrassment to match with the rising flush, though I can feel a heady joy growing alongside that embarrassment.
"Kon."
"Ssssssorry?"
Tamamo turns only at the apology, and Kon wilts under our combined unimpressed stares.
"I— Um... That was an Illusion..."
Fucking Yomi. A deep sigh escapes me as I practically deflate onto my ass, a hand going to my chest as if doing so will steady my heartbeat.
Tamamo is not far behind, though she deflates onto her knees besides Kon and pulls the Shikigami into a tight hug.
A silence falls on us as Tamamo and I both need a moment to just... decompress.
"So," I begin once my heart calms to a more steady rhythm. Kon meets my eyes from Tamamo's embrace with an uncharacteristic timidity. "You can make illusions of Cursed Energy?"
Kon nods her head.
"I didn't know you could do that."
Kon's expression regains a touch of pride, just the slightest tilt upwards while remaining quiet.
"When you made me, the first time, you only really imagined optical illusions and cheap tricks with sound. That was all you could imagine as an illusion, so you couldn't do it. I, on the other hand, am The Strongest Shikigami to ever live, so I can."
By the time she finishes her explanation, she's regained a lot of her energy, smirking proudly as she playfully looks down at me, Tamamo pulled away.
A mistake, for doing so kept her from noticing Tamamo's expression.
"And your first thought," Tamamo begins and something about her tone has Kon freezing in place, a bead of sweat trailing down the side of her face—a sight that almost has be going on a tangent about the quirks of Shikigami physiology. "Was to pretend that a lethal slash of Cursed Energy was coming to kill you?"
"Uhhh, more to kill us really?" Kon counters, and that was decidedly not the correct answer.
Seriously though, I'm not sympathetic at all to they way Kon whimpers under Tamamo's glare. I'm hardly happy with her either, even if I can see the humour in her act.
Another sigh leaves me and I just let myself collapse onto my back and stare at the ceiling. I can't even articulate my feelings right now.
For just the briefest moment, too quick for any thought at all beyond instinct, I was genuinely struck by the certainty that Kon was about to die and I damn near had a heart attack.
...I have no idea what would have become of me if that illusion was real and we failed to stop it.
Yet, despite all of that...
I bring a hand up to my face, and I think something in me breaks when I feel the wide smile stretched across my lips. Or rather, it's more like salt over something recently broken.
Even now, I can't help but lavish in these new emotions; in this new experienced. Even now, I can't help but find it so beautiful how Tamamo and I both reacted.
As that familiar contradiction of emotion burns its way through me, I just lie there and breathe.
It's only been a day, but this whole parenting thing is already proving worth it to me.
Sure, that was terrifying, but that's exactly the point, isn't it?
I never would have gotten the chance to experience that horrible emotion if I hadn't declared Kon to be my daughter.
I never want to experience it again, that is for sure, but still.
I can't wait to find out what other emotions parenting can bring.
My world just got a little bit bigger, and I couldn't be happier about it.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Alright so this chapter's a bit all over the place I think, but I don't think it's a bad chapter. I bet there were a lot of y'all who thought Daughter!Kon would just be sunshines and rainbows, right?
Wrong! This is JJK baby! Everything is Cursed!
You think you can just have fluffy family time? Hell nah! A Shikigami doll just came to life by being Cursed! You think there aren't and deeply philosophical and moral problems that would surround that? Is it even possible for Kon to have free will? Depends on how much you believe in determinism I guess, but that it's a question at all is the important part.
Also, if you didn't notice it, since I felt it was thematically appropriate, I based Kon's mini speech about love off of an entry from The Doll in Bloodborne which reads; "Hunters have told me about the church. About the gods, and their love. But... do the gods love their creations? I am a doll, created by you humans. Would you ever think to love me? Of course... I do love you. Isn't that how you've made me?"
Horrifying, right?
Anywho, let me know if you think the writing quality has dropped this chap, cuz if it has then I might have to take a brief hiatus for like a month or smth.