C6: Octopus Ramen

C6: Octopus Ramen

"Fine. I'll tell you guys…" 

She takes a deep breath, eyes closed. 

"My family's been in Hagura for about 3 centuries now. It's a long family, but after WW2 and a lot of our ancestors moved overseas, the Fushiguros left in Japan were my Grandma and Grandpa. They had 4 children, my father, my aunt, my uncle, and another child who died at the age of 4." 

Toji stirs the bowl and mixes it with the octopus, keeping his eyes on Fumiko. 

"They owned one pub which had been doing well since the Edo period. So, my grandma and grandpa managed to grow a flourishing business in this part of town," she smiles. 

Fumiko's smile is sudden. Toji gazes at her and tells himself one thing. 

'Fake smile.' 

"But –" she pauses, her shoulders moving uncomfortably. "My grandma and grandpa had a few anger issues. Our neighbors kept spreading lies among the crowds, which angered them even more. So, we were gathering a bit of a negative reputation alongside the fame." 

Her eye twitches as she says this. 

The four curse users and Toji keep their eyes fixed on her. None of them dares to look away. However, Toji realizes that she isn't being very 'truthful' as she continues the story. 

"But then, my mom and dad got married. We were living in this old family house uptown with my cousins, my uncles, and my unmarried aunt too. We had a large family. We were busy doing a lot of things while we were kids too…" 

Toji's mind suddenly travels back down memory lane. 

Pictures begin to flash in his head. 

The old Zenin household also housed many of his relatives. His uncles. His niece. His father and mother. Then, another memory flashes within his mind. 

"Idiot. You're a disappointment, you know that Toji? You don't even have enough cursed energy to play with a small curse?" 

"You don't even have the amount of cursed energy a flyhead possesses?" 

Toji's face turns dark, bangs falling over his eyes. He's dazed, stuck in the flashes of his past. 

"Shinji-san?" 

Fumiko notices the sudden change of emotion in Toji's face. 

Instantly, Toji blinks and removes the memories from his head. He is on a mission. He couldn't let anything distract him. Especially not the Zenin clan. 

Not again. 

"I'm sorry," his lips curl into a smile, but his eyes remain hidden under the shade of his bangs. "Please continue your story, Fumi-san."

Fumiko frowns worrisomely. "Is there any problem?" 

"No, not at all," Toji replies. 

Even the curse users look at Toji, confused as to why Fumiko is triggered. 

"Please, Fumi-san. Your story is too intriguing. If you'd like to continue," the cold voice of Kaito adds. 

"He's right. It is quite interesting. If you please continue without worrying, Fumi-san," Toji agrees. 

Fumiko nods. 

"So… where was I?" 

"You were busy doing stuff while you were kids," Renji says almost instantly. From the way he says it, one can tell that he is focused on the conversation. "Although, you didn't mention what this 'stuff' was."

Renjiro raises his arrogant-looking eyes to Fumiko. Fumiko's eyebrows furrow. 

She feels slightly uncomfortable with how focused Renjiro is on her past. 

"I – mm. I'll tell you guys," she stones her heart, gripping her fist beneath the counter. 

From the way her eyebrows furrow, Toji can tell already. She had a rough past. 

"Mom and Dad always made us work, ever since we were kids. There wasn't a single moment where they'd let us play even. Not like we hated helping them. But we were still displeased when we were always washing dishes and the kids outside were playing. They always told us 'responsibilities come before enjoyment.' So, they raised us that way." 

"Sorry you had to go through that, Fumi-chan," Daichi says, placing his chopsticks down for a moment. 

The other three continue to eat. Meanwhile, Toji hasn't even touched his bowl of octopus ramen yet. 

He's staring at Fumiko, listening to the story eagerly. He can't help but feel like he is back in the Zenin clan as she tells all these stories about her childhood. 

Her childhood and his childhood sounded a little too similar for him. 

"It's fine, Daichi-san. We all had troubles in the past, surely." 

'Surely,' Toji tells himself.

"So, Fumi-chan," Kaito suddenly speaks up after gobbling up a small tentacle of the octopus. "I am sorry to ask a question like this. But did you not have any negative feelings toward your parents?" 

Fumiko suddenly turns to Kaito, her eyes widening. 

"Negative feelings…?" she mutters. 

"Yes. Hatred. Sadness. Unsympathetic feelings. Irritation. Or did your parents hold those against you?"

Fumiko's eyes begin to twitch as she ponders about the question. "Hatred? Sadness?" 

In Fumiko's eyes, the pictures of the burning house flashback to her. The screams of her brothers and sisters, her father, her mother, and her grandmother too. Everyone was burned alive in the house only a month ago. 

She remembers staring at the burning house as the ashes of the Fushiguro household twisted toward the sky with clouds of gray smoke. 

At that moment, she didn't feel anything. 

As the screams of the family came to her, she recalls simply standing there helplessly as the sirens of the fire trucks came into her ears. If she runs into the fire, she burns with them. 

Yet, she didn't run. 

Deep down in her heart, even the screams could not make it ache. Her face was a simple blank, her big dark eyes wide open. 

Death is part of life. Joy is part of life. Sadness is part of life. 

So, she closes her eyes and forgets the memory of her burning family. 

"Hatred? You hated your family, Fumi-chan?" 

Fumiko's head lowers. "Hatred? No, I only felt empty. I felt nothing, even when they burned. I just felt… absolutely. Nothing." 

There's silence at the counter for a few seconds. The kids at the back of the pub left a few minutes earlier. So had the old woman eating ramen alone. 

As the five adults lined before the counter sit in silence, bowls of ramen before them, the sound of the rain begins to get louder. Thunder roars outside as lightning rips apart the sky. 

Fumiko smiles at the five strangers. 

"But – I've accepted the concept of death and life, guys. I'm just – accepting everything that comes my way." 

Kaito nods. "Good mindset you have, Fumi-chan. You are an admirable woman, with an even admirable hand to cook octopus," Kaito smiles, raising the bowl to her and putting another mouthful of ramen in his mouth.

"I understand you, Fumi-san. Empty. That is exactly what you should be feeling," Toji adds, smiling and raising his head. 

His eyes no longer seem unimpressed. Now, Toji is smiling with his eyes too. 

"For family," Toji raises the bowl as if making a toast and slurps out a piece of octopus with the ramen. 

His eyes open wide as the taste burns into his tongue. He gulps it, gradually savoring every inch of the ramen and every drop of the soup as it moves down his throat. 

"Oh, God… wow. This is just too good, Fumi-san."

Fumi chuckles and turns away, seeing the strange reaction from Toji. "You flatter me, Shinji-san."