A Family

At a street stall, a middle aged man was making food. He wore the typical white cloth wrapped around his head with a blue apron. The man was doing what street food chefs did best, make great display of their culinary skills.

"Two Yakitori please." The middle aged man heard a child like voice, looking down he saw a dark green haired girl with noticeable bangs. It was Maki and she adopted a slight excited smile on herself.

"Ah alright, two Yakitori coming up!" The man started cooking with a smile. It was a little odd seeing a child no older than 8 going to a stall and order food. Still he didn't question it, making food for children was more enjoyable than adults as they had no filters and gave their honest opinion.

Maki then placed something on the counter.

"Here." It was 300 yen that she had placed. "That should be enough for the order, right?"

"Huh, yes." He handed her the two Yakitori. They had a golden color and were skewers with a glazed sauce put together with bite sized pieces of grilled chicken.

But while he handed it to her, he had but one thought.

'Does this child have no filters? She speaks as if she disregard me.' But he could tell that it wasn't intentional, it was her way of talking and although harsh had no ill intentions in them.

Maki took the skewers and left without saying a word leaving the man scratch his head in confusion. Maki walked to her destination which was a park, there laughter and screams of children could be heard.

She walked over to a bench where Mai was sitting at and sat next to her.

"Here it is, the best Yakitori in all of Japan!"

"But didn't you just buy it at that stall?"

"The best is often times found in obscure places. Now eat!"

Maki exclaimed as she dug in her food. Street food was something that the two had not experienced, the food they received was mostly plain like rice and a small portion of soup. Sometimes even hard bread was given, neither of them had any taste nor were they very filling.

So finally experiencing this type of delicious food, it was something they relished.

In matter of moments, the skewers were gone as all that was left were the sticks.

"That was delicious, maybe I should of gotten two for myself. Mai do you another?" Maki asked as she got up, despite her small body she had quite the appetite. Mai who heard her sister's suggestion scratched her cheek awkwardly knowing her sisters hunger.

"I think I'm full now, Maki."

"Then I'll-"

They were interrupted as sounds of footsteps came to their ears. Looking at their right, Arai came in their view while holding a plastic bag. His eyes were now covered with sunglasses and his outfit consisted of a black T-shirt and white pants. "Food is here." He said before he saw the wooden sticks in their hands.

"You bought your own food." Arai frowned. "I told you to buy drinks with that money, what's the point in buying food when I was already going to bring it here."

Maki looked away and sneered. "Yeah well you were too slow. I don't want to waste time."

Arai's frown deepened as anger could be seen from his face. Mai who saw this panicked as she grabbed her sister and bowed. "Maki! Don't be rude. I'm sorry, Mr. Isao. She's just not used to the whole situation."

Maki was about to rebuke but Mai covered her mouth and put a finger up her mouth telling her to be quiet.

The relationship between the three wasn't good. The fact that Arai had taken them but not their mother who was always with them made them have a negative view of him. Their hatred for sorcerers did not help and knowing Arai was a first grade sorcerer made it worse. The only sorcerers they had seen so far were those who oppress and those who ignored them.

The fact is that Arai held the decision to decide their fate while they could only obey and that was not something Maki followed through. She didn't want to be tied down and so openly showed her displeasure to Isao.

While Mai was meek and shy respecting the strong and not have the bravery to go against them. All she wanted was to stay with her sister whom she could connect the most.

Looking at the difference in their expressions, Arai sighed while thinking this was a pain.

"Follow me."

"Why should we."

"Because I told you so. Now follow." He said coldly before walking away not looking back. Maki grumbled but followed while Mai smiled wearily still trying to reconcile with the two.

After a few minutes, they arrived at their destination. It was a clothes shop and its size took up almost the entire mall they were in. Arai quickly walked over to one of the employees and talked with them leaving the twins alone.

They both looked around curious as they had never been to a mall nor shop like this. It was overwhelming to them.

"Why are we even here? I don't want to wait for that guy to try some clothes and make us wait." Maki hmphed and sat down on a bench.

"It's alright. I'm sure it won't take that much time." Mai brought up the plastic bag holding the food Arai bought them. "Do you want to eat this, Maki?"

"Hell no! That guy tastes in food is probably shit."

"Maki..."

The hate that Mai felt from Maki when talking about Arai was too much. Though he did take them forcefully, he technically did save them from torment. They didn't need to train anymore or be abused.

Now they live in a normal house with nothing bad happening to them, though it is true that she couldn't judge everything yet as she just lived with Arai for one day. It still was better than in the Zen'in clan.

"What are you doing sitting here?" Arai walked up to them and beside him was a woman with light brown hair and brown eyes. She was the employee that he was talking to.

"We're waiting for you to finish. Wasn't that obvious?" Maki sneered.

Arai raised an eyebrow. "Finish what? We're here for you two to get some clothes."

""Eh?""

The two had originally suspected that they came here for Arai. But he had brought them here to get them clothes.

"Did you really think I'll shop for clothes in an all women clothing store?" Arai massaged his eyes while having a depressed aura.

"Kind of." Maki shrugged.

The woman walked over to them and kneeled down to look at the sisters face to face. "So these are the girls, don't worry I'll make sure to dress up your daughters nicely." She said with a smile.

"Daughters?! Listen here lady, I'm-"

Maki was about to throw an insult but Arai covered her mouth and forced a smile. "They're very excited to try new clothes on. They normally wear kimonos so I'd like it if you can pick things more casual. Money won't be a problem so choose a couple of sets for them."

"Of course! That will be done." She enthusiastically said. Having the opportunity to dress up two beautiful children made her motherly instincts kick in.

"Wait I didn't agree to this!" Maki whined as she was dragged off while Mai followed her.

"You don't have a say in this."

Arai sat down sighing, taking care of children was a much harder challenge than he had originally expected. While Mai didn't really need anything other than food and lodging, Maki was like a brat always wanting more.

That was his view towards the two children. Still their potential was immense, one had a technique that could literally create anything from cursed energy and the other had the same potential as Toji Zen'in.

And to be frank, Arai's decision to adopt them had something to do with someone. They themselves adopted someone with great potential and were from the Zen'in clan.

That man, was of course Gojo Satoru.

Arai had heard he adopted someone from the Zen'in clan and remembering Toji's last words. He could more or less guess what happened. If Gojo the most powerful man tried to raise someone, then there must be a reason.

His reason was to have more allies by his side. He can't know what will happen in the future and having reliable allies will be crucial.

"Why such a serious face." Turning his head to the right, the employee he talked to before stood next to him looking to the twins.

"Your daughters are trying cute new clothes. Won't you be with them."

"Am I obligated to?"

"Well no-"

"Then I won't. They are independent and mature enough to deal with that themselves." Arai crossed his arms and remained firmed in his decision. Letting them take care of themselves will be important into shaping them into natural sorcerers. Competent ones at least.

"I know you just had a fight with your daughters seeing their attitude. But try to be nicer to them, you might regret it in the future. Solve the problem and apologize, take that as advice from an elderly. Not every family gets the chance to be close, don't let that chance go."

Her words didn't reach his heart that was until she said the last sentence. 'Not every family gets the chance', his own family with his parents didn't get this chance. They did their best within the time they were given, he loved them and respected them for doing everything they could to help him.

Even when he was known to be odd compared to other kids his age, they loved him.

Maybe... maybe he should do the same to his own kids. Even if they weren't his real ones.

Maybe the real reason he wanted to adopt them wasn't because he was trying to follow Gojo's path, nor get powerful allies.

Maybe it was just trying to follow an example of what his parents had done for him. Give the best life, experience and love to their child.

Maybe that was what he truly wanted to grant to these twins.

Arai contemplated over this, it genuinely shocked him that he had that train of thought. In these last years, the moment he realized he was a sorcerer. He wanted power, more power, enough power to protect but also enough to not be afraid of anything.

Having enough power to do what he wants. To be free from the shackles of the world.

Yet now he decided to have children?

It was definitely out of place for him.

But maybe it was not such a bad idea. To follow what his parents wished for him to have.

A loving family.

"I see you've made your decision." The clerk smiled.

Arai chuckled and stood up. "Guess you can read minds."

"Think of it as a woman's intuition."

"Now that sure is a scary power."

Arai walked to the twins who were excitingly trying new clothes but when they saw him their faces immediately turned sour. Arai scratched his head not knowing how to approach them in a nice way.

Seeing the awkward moment, the previous employee stepped up. Grabbing Maki out of the dressing room, she showed her wearing light colored blouse with a dark blue long skirt. "These clothes suit her, right?"

Arai observed her outfit but in Maki's eyes he was staring a bit too much. It made her a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed so she looked down not wanting to make eye contact.

Maki felt something on her head, it was Arai rubbing her head and lifted his glasses showing his green eyes. "Yeah, they do." It was hard for Arai to give a compliment, in fact it was rare. He only praised people who were the strongest.

But a real compliment from the bottom of his heart and one unrelated to strength of a sorcerer, even he didn't know how many years it took for him to finally say one.

Mai and Maki though had a rough relationship with him could tell he was trying hard to not be awkward saying it. It made him feel more humane and opened up his heart.

"Th-thanks."

"You're even cuter when embarrassed!"

"I'm not embarrassed!"

While the exchange with the shopkeeper and Maki continued, Mai smiled contently happy that her new family was getting along. It was an improvement compared to her last one though much work needed to be done.

"Why don't you try some more clothes on?" Arai sat down on a bench. "I'll watch you too."

Mai nodded meekly and went back to the dressing room to try on some clothes. Arai closed his eyes and internally sighed. 'Being lax sometimes isn't so bad.'