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the-starless-sky · 4 years

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The Resurrection Puppet

Second chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen’s first light novel, featuring Nanami and Gojou.

The Resurrection Puppet

Nanami doesn’t hate going on business trips.

It’s not like you couldn’t call it going traveling on a budget, and it could also become a reason to go somewhere you normally wouldn’t.

Much less, somewhere like Hokkaido.

And above all else, even though one’s a sorcerer, for a working adult a chance to to be apart from your coworkers is an irreplaceable moment to cool down. In other words, it’s a ventilation for the soul.

If there are no change of airs, one will feel down.

Whether or not you can take enough time for a breather is the secret of being able to continue working for a long time.

For someone who thought so like Nanami, having a senior sorcerer following him on his business trip isn’t amusing at all――and if that senior’s Gojou Satoru, it’s even giving him a headache.

“Nanami, let’s do a Hokkaido quiz!”

“Please do it by yourself.”

“Okay, here’s the first question. Which famous sweet ‘Sanpouroku’[1] is my number one favorite Hokkaido sweets?”

“Please come back after looking up the definition of ‘quiz’ at least ten times.”

“Well then, let’s play the jaga-butter[2] game. The rules are easy. The one who likes jaga-butter the most wins. Okay, that’s my win―since I’m the guy who loves jaga-butter second in the whole country.”

“Who’s the first?”

“Matsuyama Chiharu.”[3]

“You lie more than you breathe, don’t you?”

“Reduces the carbon-dioxide, don’tcha think?”

“It becomes even with the carbon-dioxide produced by my sighs, is it not? Why do I even have to go somewhere as far as Hokkaido with a man, another sorcerer?”

“Isn’t it fine? It’s like a reality show.”

“Where in the world does this kind of a boring reality show exists?”

Nanami and Gojou walked through the lively main road with expressions polar opposite of each other.

Sapporo’s townscape is identical to Kyoto’s: like the intersections on a Go[4] board.

If you’d just walk as you look at the signs, you wouldn’t get lost.

It’s a bit of a pain to grasp the one-way roads, but it’s very easy to sight-see on foot in the central district. It is also very easy to compare it with a map.

“Well, it’s not as if everything’s on a grid, but it’s easy to set routes to tour around spots, huh.”

Gojou said, as he pulled out a pamphlet folded into two.

When opened, it was a simplified map of the central district, with some red circles written on it.

“What’s with that map?”

“Oi, oi, oi, Nanamiii. Oi, oi, oi, oi!”

“That’s irritating in a crude way.”

“Get a grip! There’s only one map I’d pull out in a place like this, right? What else is it if not the Gojou Satoru Sweets Map?”

“That’s why I told you, please go by yourself.”

“It’s really not worth it trying to be senior-like around you, isn’t it?”

“Since long ago, you are also a senior not worth idolizing, you know?”

Nanami sighed so many times he felt as if his lungs are flattened.

The things Gojou talk about in private is 90% of the time, nothing serious.

He fundamentally only talks in his own pace, so if you respond to him properly you’d just feel tired, but even if you gloss over him, you’d still feel irritated.

One wouldn’t be able to understand the stress of having such a person as your superior, senior, and someone absolutely above you in terms of abilities if one doesn’t deal with Gojou Satoru directly. Though, perhaps, Ijichi has it harder than him.

“...... But rather, seriously, why are you even following me? It’s not a case that requires two sorcerers. Much less――”

“Much less the strongest, super handsome sorcerer Gojou Satoru, right?”

He decided to ignore the remark out of exhaustion. Even so, Gojou continued to speak.

“Of course, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. Even though it’s a one-man investigation, if it’s you, you’ll definitely be able to finish it without fail.”

“So, why did you come?”

“To turn a case that’s probably nothing to worry about, into a case that’s absolutely nothing to worry about. Even though you alone is sufficient, it’s a case that required a first grade sorcerer going, right? And I’d even heard it has something to do with an evil curse user or those ‘pseudo-users’.”

“...... So you’re saying that the enemy might be a first grade or a special grade curse user?”

“It’s only a hypothetical, though.”

“You’re not the kind of person who’d go out just because of such vague possibility, are you not?”

“The sympathizer act’s going to seep to your core, you know. Well, isn’t it fine to just leave it like that for now? Unexpectedly, it might be that I’m just tired of my busy days and want to go on a vacation in the North.”

“So you’re saying that that isn’t your actual reason?”

“Ah, Nanami. Look, look at that!”

“Please listen what other people are saying. It’s useless telling you that, though.”

On the other end of Gojou’s pointed hand was a small food stall.

On the bright yellow signboard, the words ‘jaga-butter’ was written with a huge, red font - anyone’s self-assertion has never been this strong.

“If you think about it, a jaga-butter stall’s kind of bold, isn’t it? It’s just roasted potato topped with butter they’re selling. They’re not hard to make at home.”

“They’re similar to stone-baked sweet potatoes[5], are they not?”

“Now that you said that, that’s kinda true. As expected of you, Nanami. Your focus’ deep in those sunglasses.” [6]

“That’s just the location of my eyes.”

“By the way, Nanami, what’s the jaga in jaga-imo?” [7]

“There’s a theory that said jaga-imo is imported to Japan from the Jakarta Harbor.”

“How could you answer instantly!? Scary.”

“Conversely, how could you not know? You’re the man who loves jaga-butter second in the whole nation, aren’t you?”

“After all, number two will always be number two. If you’re going to do something then you have to aim for number one, huh... that’s that, so Cap’n, I’ll have one jaga-butter!”

In the middle of the conversation, in a very natural way, Gojou had moved closer to the stall, so Nanami’s reaction was a bit slow.

“You’re going to eat?”

“Of course. After all, I’m the number two jaga-butter lover in the nation.”

“Even though we’re actually here for a job.”

“Then you don’t have to eat, I’ll just savour the taste of Hokkaido by myself.”

“I’m eating.”

“See, you’re eating too.”

Two men sat on the bench at the main street park. One wore casual, all-black clothes, and the other a neat suit. Both wore sunglasses. They sit side by side, eating jaga-butter.

Sapporo is a metropolis city in which you’d just pass off performers and cosplayers with ‘guess people like that exists’, but even taking that into account, the two still attracts attention.

“Uwah, delicious! It’s soft and flaky, y’know, fresh from the oven!”

“It wont turn out like this if you roast them at home.”

“Yeah, you’re seriously right. I underestimated jaga-butter... guess it is stall-worthy.”

“This makes me want to drink some beer. As I thought, it would’ve been better to have this at the end of the job.”

“Beer, huh? I don’t really understand the thought of eating something delicious by itself with sake. ...... Eh? Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Don’t your jaga-butter looks kinda different to mine?”

“It’s because I put shio-kara[8] on it. It’s delicious - but I’m not going to share.”

“Nah, don’t need it. It looks kinda like the cursed spirit I exorcised the other day.”

“............”

If everything goes well, Hokkaido was supposed to be the place Nanami could have a change of pace in.

Stress were piled up inside of Nanami just a little bit.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

Because they are proper adults, after they enjoyed the soft and flaky jaga-butter, they tidied up neatly and headed to the east of the main street park, towards the television tower.

The main street park ended there, and near the bus center a large road crossed from the north to south.

It was a large road - a very important traffic route for the city, yet unexpectedly there were not that much people walking on it.

This has something to do with Sapporo’s city structure.

“So, what kind of cruel curse user are we going to investigate, again? Though, whether or not it involves a curse user is still vague.”

“Did you follow me despite your uncertainties?”

“You’re the one who’s going to deal with it, so.”

“I want to say ‘then please don’t come’, but... Rather, how could you eat soft cream after you ate something so filling?”

“Aren’t you also eating!?”

As he licked the cheese and milk twin soft cream skillfully as to not let it spill, Gojou naturally walked in front of Nanami.

Nobody knows where he’s heading to, still he moved in a way only someone who knew the details of the case would be able to do.

According to Gojou, he couldn’t believe Nanami’s choice of neither milk nor chocolate soft cream but cookies and cream soft cream despite being in Hokkaido, and that he doesn’t want to even see it[9]. Nanami wondered what he’s on about even though he’s wearing sunglasses.

Nanami wanted to tell Gojou to not walk around as he pleased, yet he thought that explaining the situation would be a faster choice.

Because if it were the usual Gojou, he wouldn’t even have to ask Nanami for the details.

So, the fact that he actually asked Nanami shows that Gojou didn’t have any information at all. In sum, Gojou knew that the case wasn’t one that needed his intervention.

Yet, Gojou still followed Nanami.

Nanami knew that Gojou wasn’t that free a man he could go to the northern part of the country just to kill time. Nanami wanted to know what Gojou’s true aim is.

In any case, in order to make Gojou talk about his true intention, Nanami had no choice but to to quickly explain about the ‘puppet uproar’.

Nanami thought about efficiency and decided to explain the case concisely.

“It seems that everything started with a website called ‘Yomotsu Hirasaka’.” [10]

“What an amazing naming sense.”

“It seems like it’s a website established with an independent server so no one could find it through search engines... Ijichi managed to find the website through some information.”

“He’s an excellent guy.”

Gojou remarked plainly, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

Hearing that, Nanami inferred, “Ah, this guy must’ve forced Ijichi to spill out my destination.”

It was not as if Ijichi Kiyotaka was a super hacker.

Even so, if he’d only know what to look for, the man called Ijichi would be able to find out ‘the ways to search’ for it.

In this information-saturated society, the ability to search was, most of the time, more useful than technical knowledge.

In that sense, Ijichi is valued highly.

Well, even though he’s valued highly, whether one would reward kindly someone who had leaked out information is another thing altogether. Nanami decided to scold Ijichi later.

“So, that bad taste of a website... what’s it for? Don’t tell me you use it to watch amusing videos?”

“The website was a simple and plain one. Makes you feel nostalgic, even.”

“The ones with an access counter where you have to report back if you hit the kiriban?” [11]

“It does have that kind of feel to it.”

“I hate myself for feeling nostalgic.”

“That’s because we are already at that age, too.”

As his soft cream flattened, Nanami munched at the cone, paused a breathe, and continued.

“In the end, it was found that that website’s a teller window for contacting a curse user.”

“Teller window?”

“There’s a simple form, and if you write your request in the form and send it, the website will show you a registered mail to send your money to. You’ll be able to buy their products that way.”

“Ain’t that a mail order service with mailing payment? The analog one.”

“The address leads to a certain building in Hokkaido owned by a small real estate agent. It’s a two tatami, one ken wide share house.” [12]

“What are you even going to share?”

“It has twenty mailboxes. It seems that a shady lot is using the place as a simple post office box.”

“The modus operandi’s a yakuza front, huh. It’s not something a curse user would think of.”

“For good or worse, sorcerers from historical families wouldn’t even think of establishing such routes, would they.”

“...... So, in the end, what are they selling? If it’s a stray curse user, they’re probably selling some ripoff cursed object to repel cursed spirits the size of a fly head or just trying to make small earnings by cursing other people, but... Nanami wouldn’t get called out just to handle small fries like them, right?”

“What great comprehension you have.”

“Think well about who you’re talking to before you say that. Even though you got called out, I wasn’t told anything at all, so it must be something those higher-up old men wanted to hide from me, right?”

“If so, don’t you think there’s a possibility that I am ‘forbidden to talk about the details’ by them?”

“That’s unrelated. If I feel like it, I’d be able to make anyone talk, after all. The only thing they could do is to at least make it so that ‘the mission itself isn’t known’. So my being here is already their failure.”

“I always think about this, but if your head works that well then could you please look up the case yourself without having me to explain it?”

“Even if it’s not impossible for me to do it by myself, letting my juniors handle bothersome things is the fastest way.”

“... Sigh...”

Nanami’s sigh was a long one.

It wasn’t as if Nanami’s hesitating whether or not to talk about the details, it’s just that he wanted to sigh at the tyrannical senior sorcerer.

After he inhaled, Nanami finally touched upon the heart of the matter.

“――the resurrection of the dead.”

“...... Come again?”

Gojou, quite unusually, doubted his hearing.

That was how absurd Nanami’s words were. Nanami himself also realized this, which was why his tone was full of exhaustion.

“The thing that website is selling is a ‘new vessel’ to call back the soul of the dead... they are calling it the ‘Resurrection Puppet’[13], it seems.”

“... Another senseless joke, huh?”

“In all probability it’s bogus, is it not. However...”

“Nah, I understood already.”

Gojou waved his hand.

In the short exchange they had, he understood the situation so well he got fed up.

“In all probability, it’s 99% confirmed that it’s a bogus business... yet, if there’s even a one in a million chance it’s true, they can’t ignore it. Am I right?”

In this world, there are some truths that one doesn’t have to think to understand.

For example, things like after dawn breaks, morning will come. That ice is cold. That apples would fall off the tree.

Because there are laughably simple, yet definite rules, the world holds up.

Conversely, if these truths are overturned, the world will collapse.

If 1 + 1 isn’t 2, then every calculation will crumble. If the dawn breaks and morning doesn’t come, just because of that this planet will perish.

We wouldn’t be able to laugh if things that are laughably simple don’t stay the way they are.

The irreversible nature of time is one of those truths.

Spilt water wont go back to its tray. Regret don’t come first. Time wont go back to the past.

The most symbolic, easiest to understand example of this has to be the phenomenon of ‘death’.

“Of course they wouldn’t want me to know. As the lot who wanted to certainly erase Sukuna’s host.”

“It seems you understood.”

“They’re really looking down on me, aren’t they? Do they think I’d count on something like that?”

“Fearing even only 1% of chance, and destroying it. That’s the reason why people in power keep reigning in power, is it not?”

“It’s certainly 100% bogus, though.”

“Surely. If one could do something like that――”

“If one could do something like that, this world would’ve ended a long time ago.”

The dead will never come back. Because they don’t come back, people can give up on their past. Because they don’t come back, people could at least pursue the right death.

If bringing people back from the dead is possible, it is likely a curse too big for this world.

Truly, an absolute curse deserving of the name ‘King of the Curses’.

“Although the subject of this suspicious business seem to be limited to ‘resurrecting babies’... the chance of it being real is still zero.”

“Babies? What’s with that?”

“I’m not sure. The target customers are limited to those. To investigate everything including that fact is my job.”

“Even though resurrecting the dead itself is totally fake.”

“Even so, the investigation still has to be done. That’s what working is.”

Gojou lifted his head as he munched on the soft cream cone.

After he licked the cream dripping off his thumb, Gojou put on a very exhausted face, and he looked at Nanami from the depths of his sunglasses.

“Y’know, Nanami. Is being a salaryman shittier than being a sorcerer?”

“If you don’t put into account an individual’s suitability, then I’d say it’s fifty-fifty.”

“This society’s re~ally cursed, huh.”

“There’s no helping that expression, isn’t it.”

“So, Nanami. The guy who’s selling those puppets... let’s just call him the ‘Puppet Maker’. You’d at least already know his location, right? Where should we go?”

“We’ve walked past it, because a certain someone decided to move around as he pleased.”

“Eh, it’s my fault?”

“Please don’t make me think that being a salaryman is better because you’re not around.”

Nanami, just a little bit, looked back on his resignation.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

A city is not something that only expands vertically.

A city that has passed the limits of density above ground would mostly expand their space horizontally.

In other words, they either pile their building upwards, or expand their space underground.

“I see, an underground shopping center, huh?”

“It’s still alright because there are a lot of entrance to the underground in the above ground, but we did make quite a detour.”

The existence of underground space reflects the liveliness of the railroad network, thus it could be said that it is one of the indicators if a town is a metropolis or not.

Now then, the underground walking space in front of the Sapporo Station is a relatively new and vast road, and from there you can access almost every major establishments between the station and Susukino[14].

That’s the reason why, despite there being a large road above ground, the amount of walkers are not overly dense. One can truly call this vast underground space where traffic lights and the weather don’t matter the other city piled below the city.

“How fashionable. There are sky lights even though it’s underground.”

“There’s even convenience stores, book shops, terraces, library teller windows, and even beauticians as well as fortune-tellers. If all of those exist here, I guess it wouldn’t be a long shot for a ‘Puppet Maker’ to be here.”

“Anyways, why didn’t we just come down here in the first place?”

“That was my plan in the first place. It’s just that there’s someone who wouldn’t listen and started eating jaga-butter instead.”

“Seriously? I’ll make sure to scold them when I see ‘em.”

“If it’s a mirror you’re looking for, there’s one in the toilet.”

“But for real..... this place’s really fashionable. There’s an exhibition space with an event currently on going, and even performers. It’s like all the liveliness gathered here rather than the above ground. Though... that’s also bad in itself.”

There was a good reason behind Gojou’s frown.

Sapporo is a peculiar city.

Humans are all unique. There are as many personalities as there are humans.

If it were Tokyo, each area like Shibuya, Asakusa, Shinjuku, Akihabara, etcetera have their own characteristics - and people too, gather at those places depending on their personality. Perhaps it’s easier to understand with terms like Shibuya-type and Akiba-type.

On the contrary, Sapporo is chaotic.

In the shopping district where young people gather, there are also anime goods store for maniacs, old, longstanding shopping street, and red light district where the desires of adults jumble together.

All of these exists on the same street, intermingling in an extra close proximity.

Naturally, the ‘energy’ gathering there is also intermixed.

Resentment, jealousy, anger, partiality, attachment, envy, disgust, selfishness.

Negative energy should, by nature, disperse depending on the city’s disposition - yet, this city doesn’t differentiate between dispositions.

Furthermore, it’s an underground walking space.

A long and wide road, as well as a vast underground city.

The cylindrical structure passing through most of the city’s major establishment, calculated to have the maximum convenience, brought the diverse people riding on the train into the same space, complete with their negative energy.

From a sorcerer’s perspective, the underground city that looked brilliant and lively at a glance is truly people’s melting pot of energy.

“Though ‘cause of that, it’s easier to pick up on the fishy direction.”

“Yes. Because you can feel unpleasant feeling at a glance.”

The stagnant air is bad already in this underground city where a lot of people come and go.

However, even in the middle of that, there’s certainly a presence of gloom worth mentioning.

For a sorcerer capable of chasing cursed spirits through the remnants of curse techniques, one could say that it’s even easier than tracing the source of a gas leak.

As they weave their way through the crowd of people, Nanami and Gojo pursued the presence, walking south of the underground city.

As they walked for some tens of minutes, the smartly organized new area ended, and they stepped into the old area with rather different tastes.

Compared to the new area, there were a lot of places where the structure is complicated, like the side ways and the road to the subway.

Though that’s not to say that the amount of people there decreased, so as a result it becomes an even crowded place.

In the middle of the people coming and going.

In the middle of the stream of people, as if an overflowing river, there it was...... the ‘stagnation’.

“Nanami.”

“Yes――that must be a lead.”

On the other end of the two sorcerer’s line of sight was a pair of parent and child.

A mother holding a baby in her arms, and a boy around five, six years old.

Gojou and Nanami pricked up their ears as they carefully closed in on them.

“――Geez, Akito. Why won’t you understand?”

“No!! Mommy, don’t bring something like that with you!! I don’t wanna, don’t wanna!!”

“You’re the big brother, don’t say something strange so egoistically. Look...... Natsuki’s crying again.”

“No!! No!! I’m not a big brother!!”

The mother corrected her hold on the baby called Natsuki, her expression troubled.

Of course, the child called Akito was also important for her.

Yet, parents are just no match for young children. The swaying expression of the mother holding the small body in her arms held an almost maddening amount of love.

At a loss with her crying child as she comforted her baby, the everyday figure of a mother.

If normal people were to look at it, it must’ve been a usual, pleasant scene.

A small child getting irritated because he felt his mother being taken away by the younger child. If it was an adult, they would’ve concluded that it’s a normal thing and go on.

However, the state of the boy, Akito, looked too desperate to call it mere irritation.

It was certain that what he felt are feelings of not wanting his parents to be taken away.

Yet, that hostility was too sharp for something you’d point at your blood-related brother.

The mother most probably realized it also, as her expression - at first a just a bitter laugh, gradually turned into that of discomfort, into exhaustion, and finally anger.

“Why do you say that!?”

“’Cause, ‘cause...!”

“He’s your little brother, you know? Don’t you feel bad for him?”

“That thing’s not my little brother!”

“Akito!”

The enraged mother followed her emotions and raised her hand.

However, even though she’d swung down her hand, there wasn’t a painful sound of it hitting her child’s cheek.

All because Nanami had held her wrist.

“Wha... wh-what’s with you!?”

Of course, the mother was flustered.

From her point of view, Nanami and Gojou were suspicious people who broke into her family’s everyday.

Even though she knew violence was something to reproach, she has to scold her child who’d made harsh remarks towards her baby. A stranger’s intervention was something she couldn’t accept.

However, there was a reason for Nanami and Gojou’s reproach of her.

As a sorcerer before an adult.

“Please let me go! This is a problem between parent and child!”

“I cannot do that. Do you understand what it is you’re holding in your arms?”

“What do you mean ‘what’...?”

“I see, so this is what they meant by puppet.”

“Ahh!”

Gojou closed his head in from the opposite side of Nanami, looking into the baby in the mother’s arms.

“Just as I wondered what’s going to come... so it’s something like that. To sell something like this and call it resurrection, what a huge scam.”

“P-please stop! Don’t touch Natsuki!”

“Hee... ‘that thing’s’ that important to you? Even more than the child crying and screaming at your feet?”

“Of course! I also gave birth to this child――”

“You bought it, didn’t you?”

Hearing Nanami’s words, the mother froze.

It was as if a hand was shoved into one’s guts, as if one’s spine was gripped tightly, that kind of despair-causing chill.

It was clearly words one couldn’t utter unless they know of the situation.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

“――Cursed corpse?”

The mother repeated after Nanami’s words, as if ruminating it.

Perhaps because it was an unfamiliar word, the mother’s intonation was a bit awkward.

“Yes. To explain it simply...... Ah. Perhaps calling it a cursed doll would be easier to understand.”

One could feel Nanami’s consideration towards non-sorcerers through his explanation.

If you’ve experienced being a working adult, you’d be reliable in this kinds of things - Gojou quietly acknowledged.

“Doll, you said... but... this child is so...”

“It’s very well made to the point of surprise. If a normal person were to look at it, they wouldn’t be able to differentiate it with real babies.”

“...... This child is, my real...”

“You, as the one who made the transaction, knows best that it’s not, right?”

“......”

“Usually, there aren’t many sorcerers that could make such a human-like cursed corpse. ...This is just my guess, but in order for it to be made, they asked you of something other than money, didn’t they?”

“Uh...”

The baby in her arms was truly well made.

Swaying its arms and legs as if grasping for the sky, the cherry blossom colored cheeks itched. It was a textbook way to appeal to a woman’s motherly instincts.

Even so, that was only about the looks.

From a sorcerer’s perspective, there was only repulsiveness.

It was a matter of course. After all――

“Perhaps it was――”

“You were asked to give them your baby’s remains, weren’t you?”

“......Gojou-san.”

“Of course they’d limit their service to just a babies. ‘Cause there’s no way to drag an adult’s dead body around.”

Nanami, who had tried to get information out of the mother with ambiguous words dropped his shoulders at Gojou’s frank remarks.

From the mother’s discomposure, it seems that Gojou’s words hit the nail on the head.

Using a dead body as material to make a cursed corpse that moves as if it’s alive.

If one has an understanding of curse techniques, one would know how twisted, blasphemous, and depraving this technique is.

However, that was enough to show ordinary people the sweet nightmare of having “resurrected the death”.

Indeed, the cold, harsh truth uttered by Gojou was needed to wake her up from the nightmare. It sounds good if one were to say he purposefully took the role, yet it nobody’s sure if Gojou actually did that while thinking of Nanami’s position.

Whatever his true intention is, Gojou’s words continue.

“It looks alive, but actually it’s no different than a programmed pet robot, y’know? That thing.”

“That’s a lie! After all, I heard about it! ......I heard that Natsuki will come back, so I paid money...”

“If one’s a parent, shouldn’t one know? Of their children’s smallest habits, how they express their feelings...... and the fact that no presence of a living soul could be felt from that baby.”

“............”

“Further more――”

For a moment, Nanami moved his gaze under the sunglasses towards Akito.

The boy, looking about five years in age, clung on to his mother’s legs and looked up at her with a worried, yet determined expression on his face.

“――It seems that that child understands. That his mother’s heart is about to be snatched away by something unknown.”

“That’s......”

“The shape of truth is different for each person. If the truth that you chose was the one in which ‘you have not lost any children’, then I have no right to say anything, but......”

He pushed his sunglasses up with his middle finger, and breathed once before continuing.

There are times when children prepared themselves much more determined and firmer than adults thought they could.

The boy named Akito surely knows that ‘he has to hold on to his mother no matter what’. It’s commendable, yet the cruel reality that forced such a small boy to take on that role felt more painful.

That’s why, Nanami put in quiet prayers into his next remark.

“It is also true that you are turning your eyes away from ‘the present in which your living child is worrying about you’.”

“......I......”

That mother too, deep down in her heart understood.

That Nanami’s words are right, that what she’s done is nothing but escapism.

Even so, Nanami also understood that it wasn’t something one could easily reply ‘yes, I understand’ to.

To regain the person once lost, only to lose them again.

Nanami understood the cruelty, yet he has to keep pressing for her to choose, no matter what.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

“It’s really harder to cut down people’s attachment than to exorcise curses, huh?”

What made Gojou mutter such a thing was that so much tears and weeping were involved until they finally managed to collect the cursed corpse.

From underground one wouldn’t know, but outside the sun has already set considerably. If they were to use force to retrieve the cursed corpse, then the wound in the mother’s heart wont ever heal. They had to wait until the mother let it go by herself.

You didn’t work at all, so you could at least carry the luggage, he was told, and though he was unwilling and declined at least three times, in the end he was made to carry Nanami’s bag.

Inside was the cursed corpse they retrieved from the mother.

“Nanami, this is a bit too heavy to be put inside a hand bag!”

“We can’t just throw it away, can we? Moreover, it’s an important lead. If we compare the curse power inside the puppet, we could pursue the creator through even the smallest remnants.”

“Yea, I guess. The ‘Puppet Maker’ who sold it looks like he had the intention to hide the traces of his curse power, but... as expected, the guy’s unqualified. There’s a limit to being sloppy.”

“Yes, indeed.”

In the end, they managed to find the ringleader’s stronghold very easily, a little bit too fast.

It was an especially old area even in the underground city.

Branching off of the wide area, a road connecting to a certain building’s underground floor. On the back of the stairs leading to the floors above, a complicated zig-zagging road.

Perhaps it was formerly rented by an izakaya[15].

Judging from how nasty the place look like, it certainly doesn’t fit to be a place for respectable businesses. Yet, it is a perfect location to run fishy businesses in.

Using a technique of the same principle as a ‘curtain’, at the very least the place was hidden from the people.

Even so, for a concealment it was nothing but crude.

For Nanami and Gojou who are following the remnants of the curse technique, it was as if there were footsteps continuing non-stop towards the place.

“Makes you really feel the fact that we’re short of sorcerers. To let a third-rate like this boldly create a base like this...”

“Strong curses are concentrated in the metropolitan areas. It is proportionate to the sorcerers’ activities as well. No matter what we do, our guard tend to be duller on other regions.”

“Though, usually it would’ve been fine to just let this level of evil curse user do as they please.”

It wasn’t only one of them.

However, it wasn’t as if they gave each other signals, yet the two of them stepped one leg forward,

“Now that they have made such a damage,”

“As expected, we have to crush them, huh?”

At practically the same time, the two sorcerers kicked down the door.

The sound of wood and latch creaking echoed flashily, as dust danced in the air. The two sorcerers appeared in a boorish way as if they’re from a yakuza movie, it made the owner of the room――the ‘Puppet Maker’ to reflexively rise on his feet.

“......Wh-what the fuck are you bastards...?”

“If you think we look like customers, then have your eyes checked in the hospital, you small fry.”

“We’re sorcerers, you see. Proper ones.”

“Different from you.”

Especially strong contempt filled Gojou’s voice.

The inside of the room they forced into could only be described as shabby.

The look of the interior was inconsistent, it wasn’t clear if the owner wanted it to look Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, as if they only cared about the ambiance.

From a lion decoration to a synthetic-looking mummy. A pit viper in formalin. A mask covered in paint, one you’d see being sold in souvenir shops.

And to complete the look, the master of the room, ‘Puppet Maker’s’ clothes.

The fabric of his clothes - that’s even unclear if it is an onmyouji’s[16] or a Shinto priest’s - look cheap as if it was borrowed from a rental shop.

And on top of that, he had talismans - that barely works as as a good luck charm - all over his body, tied around it as if bandages.

From the eyes of a sorcerer, it looks like nothing but a costume.

Even if the other party’s an ordinary person, it’s impertinent to think they’d get deceived by such looks.

No - in reality, there are people who are deceived and damages have emerged, so it’s really hopeless.

One could say that from head to toe, this person is nothing but an insult to sorcerers.

“Sorcerers...? I-I-I, I-I see, so you guys, y-you guys are also sorcerers...!”

“What the hell’s with that ‘also’? Don’t tell me you count yourself as a sorcerer?”

“Please, don’t put up unskillful resistance against us. It’s exhausting having to hold back.”

The feelings Nanami held are most likely the same.

The creases between his eyebrows behind the sunglasses he wore was deep.

In there, Nanami’s instinctive disgust towards the existence of the ‘Puppet Maker’ as well as his inhumane acts showed.

Right now he wields no weapon, but he’s in a stance where he could go into his battle mode in a moment’s notice.

Even though the Puppet Maker was a sham sorcerer, the strong, intimidating air the first grade sorcerer, Nanami let out could even be felt by an ordinary person’s senses.

Conversely, if one could still be relaxed in this situation, they are either an idiot... or they’ve lost their consciousness already.

“Ah, a-a-aaaah... wha-what are you, here for?”

“If you still don’t understand what we’re here for even now, just don’t talk, wont you? Stupidity stops being lovable when it’s too much.”

“I, I-I, I have no time left, no time!!”

“That’s our line. Soon it’d be four. Even if it’s on a business trip, I don’t want to work on off-hours.”

Nanami and Gojou, whilst keeping their side-by-side position, stepped towards the Puppet Maker.

In this small room, if the two of them were to block the way in, there’d be nowhere to escape.

It was a checkmate.

Now that it had turned this way, the action the Puppet Maker could take is limited.

To prepare himself to be rash and thrust through Nanami and Gojou to run away, or try to put up an unsightly fight by waving around a blunt weapon or something of the sort. Another one is to resign to his fate.

――in the end.

The action that the Puppet Maker took was neither.

“H-h-he, he――help mee!!”

“Huh?”

“I-I-I, I’m g-gla-glad. I was going to look for you guys! Real sorcerers! He-help me, if it’s money you want I have it! That’s why, that’s why...”

The Puppet Maker clung on to Nanami’s legs――and begged the latter to save him.

In that moment, both Nanami and Gojou felt a sense of wrongness.

Indeed, this man - this Puppet Maker couldn’t even be called a sorcerer.

It doesn’t have to be Nanami - even the high school’s first years would be able to control the situation. That was how weak this Puppet Maker is as a sorcerer and curse user.

However――he’s too weak.

The curse power inside the cursed corpse certainly wasn’t strong at all.

The technique used was also a simple one - to mechanically respond to a human’s calls, nothing but deceit.

Even so, he was too weak.

The person clinging on to Nanami’s legs was too weak, so weak he couldn’t have possibly used even that level of curse technique.

However, certainly the same curse power leaked out from the man.

In other words, they’ve finally reached the one truth.

“――Nanami.”

“Yes. We thought he’s cursing people just for fun――it seems that he’s the cursed one.”

As if the short exchange was a signal, the mutation started.

Ripping off the talismans binding the Puppet Maker’s clothes――countless ‘arms’ flew out from under the clothes, just like a whip.

“Tch,”

Nanami tried to dodge with the littlest possible movement, yet changed his judgment in a moment’s notice.

It was because on the tips of the ‘arms’ swinging around, jumped out some insect-like creatures. As he dodged the arms’ direct hit, Nanami took off his suit’s outer garment and brushed off the insect-like creatures.

The Puppet Maker’s body has truly become that of a puppet’s.

Human flesh and puppet colluded in a warped way to form a disarrayed contour. His neck and left arm still barely holds their flesh and blood, but there was nothing more tragic than his left chest below.

The puppet head distorted in hatred bit at his heart.

Sharp, wooden skeleton akin to a bamboo spear penetrated through his flesh, joining with his body. That body was already over 70% turned into a puppet, drawing a spider-like silhouette.

“Ah, aaaaaaaaaaaahh, help, he-help! Money, I-I have money, I’ll pay, so please exorcise this!! This thing, this thing this thing this thing this thing, get it away from me, away away away away AWAY AWAY!!!”

The Puppet Maker struggling from pain and fear waved about his countless arms as if whips.

That power by itself was just like a storm - if you were to take a hit with your body, your bones will definitely get crushed into pieces, yet that wasn’t its real threat.

The most repulsive thing is the countless small insects that came out of the puppet’s stomach, squirming over its skin.

No...... if you were to look closer, you’d realize that it was actually a swarm of small cursed corpses.

They were eating the Puppet Maker’s body, as well as the ‘babies’ corpses’ hidden below his clothes, as they propagate and grow.

“......A cursed corpse that’s also a production factory that propagates itself, is it.”

Knitting flesh and hair, even now some cursed corpses are being produced in a slow pace.

The man’s body had been too corroded that there’s no longer any need to tell of it.

And then, the last question was finally answered.

“I’ve been thinking... ‘If the baby’s skin is used in the creation of the cursed corpse given to the parents, then what did the culprit do to the rest of the flesh?’, but... I see, so he’s supplying the flesh for it to eat.”

“Even though he’d used dead bodies, I was still unsure how this kind of man could create such an elaborate cursed corpse, but...”

“It wasn’t something a modern day sorcerer could just make. If not a shadow of an old sorcerer family member’s former self, then it’s a cursed tool dug out from the depths of a warehouse... or rather, a cursed object on a rampage, ain’t it?”

“Considering how he’d prepared such a complicated transaction route, at first it must have been simply a way to make money. It is certain that there are evil intentions. There is no room for taking extenuating circumstances into consideration in the first place, but...”

Nanami sighed, completely exhausted.

“It’s something that devours not only dead bodies but also living things. We can’t take it slowly, can we.”

Gojou dropped his shoulders listlessly.

A puppet that eats human flesh and gives birth to other puppets.

Even though he’d collected flesh to provide meals for it, the Puppet Maker couldn’t feed it on time, and he’s now possessed by the puppet itself.

Whichever one of them shouldn’t exist in this world.

Nanami and Gojou has the same kind of expression on their faces.

The feelings held was resignation.

The face of a human who has accepted the situation.

And the Puppet Maker, who’d sought their help doesn’t take to it kindly.

“Eh, ah, aAh, aren’t you guys, go-going to he-help-heElp me......?”

“Naw, that’s impossible. You understood yourself, don’t you?”

“Although if it hadn’t progressed to this stage, perhaps Ieiri-san could have cut it off.”

Nanami reached his arm to his back.

On his back, he has a large blade befitting to be described as a nata[17].

Nanami carries it.

As someone who had quit being a salaryman and chose to become a sorcerer instead. He carries the blade that he must swing down.

Nanami thrusted the sword towards the Puppet Maker.

“Wa, wait, what is thAt?”

“7:3.”

Nanami swung his blade to cut the air.

“My technique allows me to cut my target into 7:3 segments... and by doing so, will forcefully create a weak point in them. It doesn’t matter if the target is an living being or an inanimate object. Even someone like you, who are a fusion of both, will be counted as one being.”

“......whA, whAt are you talking about......”

Disclosing your technique.

The amplification of the effects of a technique by means of binding. Under the condition of explaining your technique - a demerit - you could increase your attack power.

In other words, for Nanami it was like a a declaration of intention to absolutely annihilate the enemy.

“It’s not as if I don’t pity you because of your appearance, but it’s clear that in the first place, you’re the one that started it all by making money with a dangerous curse technique.”

“...O, oO, oI? You’re joking, right? I-I-I, I’m a human, you know? What’s a sorcerer like you try-trying to do to a-A-a a human with that blade?”

“It’s already too late for that body.”

“No, no, nonononono, ah, what’s with thAt treatment!? I, I, I resurrected the dead! And I saved them! The people’s hearts! I saved them! Yet, I’m the onLy one who su-su-suffers...! S-suffer... th-the he-hearts... hearts! Hearts!! He-he...”

“Your words and your consciousness is already unsteady. More importantly――”

Nanami skillfully swung his sword in the narrow space.

It was clear even to the Puppet Maker that Nanami’s movement was filled with a certain intent to kill. When you are cornered into an absolute predicament, there are only so little actions you can take.

Fear and impatience controlled the Puppet Maker.

And then...... the one who broke the tension was Nanami.

“――You who had scattered curses to other people are already a curse yourself.”

“I’ll KILL yOUuUuuuuUuuuuUUuuU!!!”

Thus, the Puppet Maker jumped towards Nanami.

Nanami did not move.

He only used his body’s recoil, and slashed the wind with his brandished blade.

“If you are an adult, then bear your responsibilities.”

A single stroke.

“――――Ah,”

The Puppet Maker couldn’t even let out a sound of agony in his death.

The technique power-upped by disclosure of information accurately cut the Puppet Maker’s body to a 7:3 ratio.

The body was cut diagonally from the shoulders, cleanly dividing the puppet part and the flesh and blood, and it fell to the ground.

The separated puppet body that had probably used the Puppet Master’s soul as nutrient to move made robotic clattering sounds before it finally stopped moving.

And then.

“......Ah..... Ah...... A, ah... Ah...... Aah......”

The Puppet Master muttered feebly in a voice that didn’t even form words, and finally stopped moving as if a puppet whose strings were cut. A few moments after, as if a child whose umbilical cords are cut down, the cursed corpses that looked like small insects also stopped moving one after another.

Ironically, even though only for a moment before his death, the flesh and blood of the Puppet Master that had been cut off from the puppet died as a human.

Even if that truth couldn’t clear one’s heart..... it was also true that Nanami’s single stroke was able to turn him back to a human.

“Good work there, Nanami.”

After Gojou patted his shoulder, Nanami swung his arms in a circular motion to ease its stiffness.

“It would’ve been way easier if you were the one to do it, though.”

“Even though he’s this kinda guy, if we still want to bury him as a human, then your technique is better suited than mine, y’know.”

“I really don’t want to be suited to this kind of job.”

“In any case, let’s take down just the curtain and let the others deal with the rest. As expected, disposing dead bodies are beyond my capacity.”

“This time you didn’t do anything at all, though, did you?”

With Nanami’s deep, long sigh as the last thing uttered by the two of them, the room turned silent.

The lion decoration, the synthetic-looking mummy, the pit viper in formalin was, as ever, enshrined in the room that has lost its master.

Was the owner of the room a human? Or a puppet?

At the point in time during which the two sorcerers arrived, the answer’s already vague.

However, the traces of blood spread out on the floor looked fresh and vibrant, as if proving his humanity.

Before long, those traces too, got wiped clean as if it was never there.

In the end, only silence remained in the depths of the underground.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

“There’s a saying that goes like, ‘heal thyself’, right?”

Gojou suddenly muttered, as he swayed his glass on the bar counter.

Gojou started the conversation without any preface, so it took Nanami a moment to realize that he’s being talked to.

“......Are you talking about the Puppet Maker?”

“About the entirety of sorcerers. To deal with a curse ultimately means to deal with people’s negative energy. Jobs that make you feel bad will increase.”

“So you’re talking about the dangers of accumulating curses within yourself.”

“Even if you’re used to it, it doesn’t really feel good, right? Makes you want to get drunk.”

“The drink you ordered was ‘Florida’, wasn’t it? That’s non-alcoholic.”

“I didn’t do anything, so I don’t have to get drunk.”

“Please don’t say that so confidently.”

As he looked at Nanami, who’s currently gulping down ‘Gimlet’, Gojou laughed.

“Nanami’s actually a compassionate person, right?”

“What’s up with you, suddenly?”

“You could divide your feelings, but it’s not like you’re okay. An adult more or less have a way to handle the frictions born from such a situation, right? That’s exactly why sake is a wonder drug for the heart.”

“That’s quite an uninteresting talk, but are you going to continue?”

“I’m really not teasing you at all,”

Nanami had a suspicious eye behind his sunglasses, yet when he made sure that Gojou doesn’t have his usual frivolous smile on, Nanami quietly returned to a listening stance.

Realizing that, Gojou continued.

“Seeing that the ones giving birth to curses are humans, then the students I’m in charge of, too, will one day have to face the evil intentions of shitty humans.”

“......That’s because they’re sorcerers.”

The world is full of irrational things.

People’s evil intentions, and the curses it gave birth to.

Not only sorcerers, every person has to bite into such bitterness, know what it means to give up, and pile up despairs to become an adult.

Nanami knows that.

And Gojou knew that Nanami became an adult by going through all of it.

That’s why, he made this speech to him.

“People like us knows how to release out such poisons that runs through the heart. However, youngsters that are on their sensitive period are different. There are cases where one poison could destroy their hearts.”

“To deal with the poison left inside children is the role of an adult. Shouldn’t someone in a teaching profession like you know that better than I do?”

“I know. That’s why I came to talk to you.”

Gojou gulped down the contents of his glass and ordered to the bartender.

“‘Cinderella’ for two, ‘kay?”

“You must be joking.”

Nanami narrowed his eyes at the fact that a cocktail even sweeter than the one Gojou ordered before was prepared for him, too.

Of course it was non-alcoholic. It’s a type of mixed juice.

Gojou ignored Nanami who seemed to want to complain as he turned his gaze towards the shelf behind the back bar and continued his words.

“There’s a child I want to try to leave in your care for once.”

“It’s not Fushiguro-kun, is it?”

“Itadori Yuuji. You know him, don’t you?”

“.........I heard he died.”

“He’s keeping the King of Curses inside of him. He’s on a different level than the bogus ‘puppet that could resurrect the dead’.”

The bartender slowly put down two glasses on top of the counter.

Golden colored liquid that looked like the setting sun.

Considering its name, perhaps it was the color of full moon. Or, possibly, the hair color of the young man whose name was mentioned in the conversation.

That cocktail was sweet, as if a happily-ever-after fairy tale overflowing with romanticism.

As he held up his glass and swayed it, Gojou continued.

“I’m also really busy, so a chance to talk to you without anyone bothering is somewhat valuable, y’know?”

“I understand that you hate the current sorcery world, but even so I am a person of regulation. I don’t know what kind of expectations you hold for Sukuna’s vessel , but......”

“Not Sukuna’s vessel. This is, to the bitter end, a talk about an individual by the name of Itadori Yuuji.”

“Surely he’s not in such a light situation that one is permitted to talk whilst separating the two?”

“You know, Yuuji is a really honest child.”

Gojou’s fingertips caressed the rim of the glass.

The sound that seem like the high note of a stringed instrument quietly rang.

“He has resolution and courage, as well as the decisiveness needed in battle. Even so, there are parts of him that are just too straightforward. It’s really worrying when a child like that gets his heart broken even once.”

“What do you want me to do now that you’ve said that to me?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I’m really busy. I can’t say I could get around to caring for his mental growth too. It’d help me a lot if there was a chance to leave him in your care even once.”

“You think I’m going to listen to your favor?”

“That’s why I’m making a request to you. Whether he’s a sorcerer or Sukuna’s vessel...... as an adult who wishes for one young man’s healthy growth.”

It was usual for Gojou to speak frivolously, irresponsibly, to line up words that you couldn’t ascertain whether he’s serious or joking. That’s why, you’d know when he’s talking earnestly.

“Because I want to leave him in the care of an adult who understands other people’s pain. Someone like you.”

“...You came here just to say such sugary-sweet[18] words?”

“You know that I have a sweet-tooth, don’t you?”

As he laughed, Gojou passed the other glass to Nanami.

A sweet yet sour golden cocktail.

For a short while, Nanami quietly stared at the cocktail that look almost as if it’s filled with youth’s awkwardness.

“I’m not good with sweets, though.”

Without particularly signaling each other, the two of them gulped down the contents of the glass at the same time.

“Sweet,”

“Delicious, isn’t it?”

In the quiet bar, two contrasting voices echoed.

The two sorcerer’s night wears on,

As it embraced the multitude of whirling hardships and the sweetness that remains in their tongues.

Notes

[1] 三方六 (Sanpouroku) is the name of a Hokkaido local sweet (kind of like baumkuchen). So yeah, it's not... really a question.

[2] じゃがバター (jagabata―)Literally potatoes with butter on top. I heard they're really tasty.

[3] Matsuyama Chiharu is a Japanese folk singer and songwriter. He was born in Hokkaido.

[4] Go is a Japanese board game.

[5] 石焼き芋 (ishiyaki imo). Some people make it at home.

[6] 目の付け所がサングラスの奥 - this phrase is usually not about sunglasses, but rather how one notices things that other people dont (目の付け所が違う） - because he changed the last word, it just became him pointing out where Nanami's eyes are.

[7] じゃが芋 (jaga-imo) means potato - though you'd probably be able to infer that anyways, lol.

[8] 塩辛 (shio-kara) is salted fish entrails.

[9] Hokkaido is very popular for its dairy farms, so it's strange for Nanami not to try the local delicacy, but cookies and cream flavor instead. Also, Nanami's questioning why Gojou cared that much, after all he wears sunglasses so he most probably couldn't tell the difference just by looking at the color.

[10] 黄泉比良坂 (yomotsu hirasaka), according to Japanese mythology, is a hill that's also the border between the world of the living and the dead.

[11] Old Japanese websites usually have access counters. When you hit the kiriban (good numbers like 10.000, 15.000, etc.), you report back to the owner and sometimes they'll give you presents.

[12] Two tatami, one ken is approximately 3,65 x 1,80m. Super small, so Gojou asked what's there to share (since it's a share house).

[13] 反魂人形 (hankon ningyou), literally Anti-Soul Puppet, I think.

[14] Susukino is a shopping district located in the center of Sapporo.

[15] 居酒屋 (izakaya) means a bar, pub or tavern. You usually drink alcohol while eating snacks.

[16] 陰陽師 (onmyouji) is a kind of exorcist.

[17] 鉈 (nata) is like a hatchet? It's a traditional tool that has a wide blade and short handle, exactly like Nanami's.

[18] 甘ったるい (amattarui) also means sentimental.

I am super happy and excited that I managed to finish translating this chapter! The hardest part was definitely the fight with the bad guy...! Can’t wait for the second light novel to come out!! This one only has two stories left, the one with the curse group and the one about Ijichi. I reaaaaaaaaaaally want to read Nobara and Toge’s story TT.

#translation #light novel translation #jujutsu kaisen #gojou satoru #nanami kento

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inawickedlittletown · 5 years

Text

Walking The Wire (106/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Five

It turned out that having Michelle know he was Spider-Man and acknowledging that she did was a good thing. Michelle was just all that much better about covering for Peter. Just the other day when they’d gone on a small class trip and Peter had spotted a mugging happening, it was Michelle that had distracted everyone long enough for Peter to get away unnoticed and then again when he rejoined them.

The only thing about Michelle was that unlike Ned, she actually seemed concerned about what Peter got up to. She worried. It was weird especially when she pretended that she didn’t in person and then sent him long rambling texts about how he wasn’t being careful and how close he came to getting injured or hurting others.

It was all on par with how much coverage Spider-Man had started to get from the media which Peter didn’t particularly like. At first it had seemed cool to be mentioned on the news all the time and to have articles about Spider-Man popping up everywhere. His favorite were the YouTube videos since those were usually fun to watch mostly because they weren’t all made by anyone truly professional. But after a while, even those got old. It got annoying. Tony definitely disliked it.

“I just don’t like how interested everyone seems to be in finding out your identity,” his dad said while they were tinkering in the workshop. “It’s none of their business.”

Peter liked listening to him rant. It was kind of hilarious especially when one considered Tony’s own media presence basically his entirely life.

“And it’s not like we’ve announced that you’re an Avenger or anything but some reason they just seem to associate you with us.”

That’s when Steve spoke up. “That’s because they see you out and about with him all the time as Iron Man and Iron Man is an Avenger.”

“That isn’t the point,” Tony said.

“And also, Peter’s the only hero that’s popped up that has a hidden identity. Gives everyone a mystery to want to solve.”

Tony muttered some more and Peter tried not to laugh. He could tell that Steve was amused too.

Since all that stuff with The Vulture, Tony still did tend to show up when Peter needed help. He was better about letting Peter be involved in things especially when they didn’t involve alien tech. They had stopped some weird guy with what seemed to be some sort of power -- Tony said he was probably an inhuman -- just the other day from destroying a big portion of Greenwich Village. The guy hadn’t been doing it on purpose it turned out it. It was just that his powers were so unstable. Peter had been glad to have Tony there because he didn’t a single person could have handled everything that instance entailed. Even Vision had made an appearance for that. In the end they had subdued the guy and Tony had handed him over to a the new Shield.

“But also, it’s not just the identity thing,” Tony kept on, “it’s that there’s varying degrees of coverage. He’s good for the city. He’s a vigilante. He’s an Avenger. He’s not. It’s ridiculous. At least no one seems to have put together that I built your suit. Or at least no one’s written an article about it yet. And can you imagine if anyone found out I had a son? Because then they would definitely start questioning whether you were the one under the mask and then my parenting would come into question.”

It was no surprise to Peter that Ned loved it. He had a whole collection on articles written about him and he would send Peter the more outrageous ones and Peter would pass those on to Steve because Steve loved reading them too. May seemed to agree with Tony on the whole matter. But then, May also tended to try and get Peter to quit being Spider-Man altogether whenever she saw him and it wasn’t something that was ever likely to stop. She liked to bring up questions about school and girlfriends and college and how Spider-Man wouldn’t be an ideal addition to any of those as her way of asking him to stop.

As he stepped out of Midtown one afternoon, Peter was surprised when he spotted Tony complete with a baseball cap, sunglasses, a grin, and a thermal cup that probably contained coffee, leaning against a sleek black car that at least proved to be his least flashy. Still, no matter how hard he was trying, he looked out of place and people were noticing him.

Michelle who had walked out with him spotted Tony with no problem and when Peter glanced at her he could practically see her thinking. Her left eyebrow rose and she stared him down.

“Is Tony Stark actually picking you up right now?”

Peter shook his head. “Nope. It’s all in your imagination. You’re hallucinating.”

Michelle laughed -- cackled more like and Peter grinned back at her as she nudged him and rolled her eyes. Ned appeared then, busy with his backpack as he walked, and only managing to not run into anyone because anyone in his path dodged him.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Your boy here is being picked up by Tony Stark. Fancy that. I bet Flash will be jealous.”

“Which is why I’m going to go before anyone else notices,” Peter said and rushed away. When he looked back Michelle waved and Ned grinned at him and gave him thumbs up.

“Hey,” Peter said when he was close enough.

“Hi, kiddo,” his dad said, “I was in the area so I figured I’d come by and get you. I was also sort of craving this apple crostini this one restaurant has so we’re going to have to make a stop for that. Up for it?”

Peter rolled his eyes but nodded. “Sure.”

They got into the car and when Peter looked out the window he realized that a few people were watching them. Someone must have caught onto Tony being there. Not that it really mattered since everyone knew that Peter had a Stark Internship. Of course, no intern could have ever expected for Tony Stark himself to show up to pick them up from school. He was definitely going to hear about it.

The restaurant Tony took them to was a hole in the wall that no one would have ever noticed and yet it was busy. A well known secret. Nevertheless, they were seated at a discrete table towards the back without much wait which told Peter that Tony had called ahead.

“Why are we really here?” Peter asked.

“I told you -- apple crostini. Also, remind me to order one to go because Steve would kill us if we don’t bring him one back. We used to come here sometimes back in the day.”

“Oh,” Peter said.

His dad never really talked about how he and Steve had come to be and Peter didn’t really have any questions or want to know details, but he loved when Tony slipped in something that hinted at a past memory. It made him realize how normal it all was in some ways. Sometimes, it was still shocking to think about Iron Man and Captain America in a romantic relationship or to consider that they were getting married until he thought about them as Tony and Steve -- his dad and his dad’s fiance.

“Truth is, I wanted to catch up with you,” Tony said. “Things have been a bit crazy lately. Haven’t really spent much time with you on our own. Steve or someone else is usually around.”

Peter hadn’t -- no, he’d noticed, it was just that he hadn’t minded. He’d never expected to have Tony to himself all the time and had felt lucky when he did even if then it had been broken up to a few hours here and there and now he was living in the tower and had access to Tony all the time and it didn’t really matter that there were other people around.

“We can start with, who was the girl?”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Who, Michelle? I’ve told you about her. She’s the one that figured out I’m Spider-Man all on her own.”

“MJ. You said someone named MJ did.”

“Michelle Jones. She likes to be called MJ. Anyway, that was her.”

Tony nodded. The waitress approached then and Tony ordered the apple crostinis and remembered to order the one to go as well without Peter needing to remind him.

“So she’s super smart and observant,” Tony said.

“Yup. Definitely knew it was you waiting for me. Actually, I think a few people figured it out.”

Tony shrugged with a grin. “And they can all wonder about what your internship entails once more.”

Tony started asking about how things were going in school next and Peter filled him in even though he was sure he’d mentioned some of it to him in passing over the last few weeks.

The apple crostini turned out to be amazing. He was in the middle of telling Tony about what they’d started working on in physics when it arrived and after one bite of the crunchy and flaky crust with the warm apple filling and the ice cream and Peter was in heaven.

“I told you so,” Tony said.

“This is the best thing ever,” Peter said.

It was nice to have some time on his own with Tony. Tony told him all about how the board members were driving him and Pepper crazy because they didn’t like that Tony’s concern wasn’t all about profit when it came to the prosthetic division even when it came to custom projects.

“It’s like they don’t understand how good the PR is although that obviously isn’t why we’re doing it.”

“But it’s your company,” Peter said.

“Pepper and I own more than half of the shares of the company, sure, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to deal with the board of directors. It’s the side of business that I don’t particularly like. Pepper is awesome at it. It’s all stuff you’ll have to learn about if you want to take over the company one day--”

“Um, what?” Peter said and almost choked on a piece of apple.

Tony chuckled. “Won’t be for a while and it’s up to you if you want it. It’s not an obligation, you know. You could find your own Pepper Potts and have someone else run it if you prefer. I rather you do what you want than what you think I want you to do so--”

Peter had sort of forgotten about how Tony had broken the news to him what felt like ages ago even though it hadn’t even been a full year yet. He’d forgotten how Tony told him that he would inherit everything as if that had been the right way to let him know that Tony was his father. Since then, Peter hadn’t really thought about it or the reality of what it actually meant which meant that it was overwhelming information to take in.

“I -- that’s--”

“What, did you forget that I’m Tony Stark? You’re my heir, kid, to this whole crazy company and whatever else I’ve accumulated.”

“But what if -- what if you and Steve have kids?” Peter asked.

It wasn’t something he’d considered before that moment, but wasn’t that what people did after they got married? They went and had kids. Peter was aware that Tony and Steve were both men but there were ways around that -- surrogacy or adoption or other weirder things. It was possible. Peter didn’t know if -- well, he didn’t know if he’d be thrilled about it if they did have kids. He felt weird even just thinking about it.

“Not really something we’ve discussed,” Tony said and he seemed to notice that Peter seemed uncomfortable. “And even if we did decide to have kids it wouldn’t be for a long while, Pete.”

“Oh,” Peter said. But they could still have some even if Peter was fully grown when they did--

Tony grabbed his hand. Tony’s hand was warm and familiar and Peter allowed himself to calm down. “Peter, you’re my kid. I -- I love you, kid. Not something that will ever change. I’ll always be here for you no matter what. Even if Steve and I adopt a hundred kids. You’re still always going to be my son and you’re the most important person in my life.”

Peter hadn’t expected Tony to say that. Those three words. Tony had said them before, he was sure, but Peter couldn’t actually remember. He certainly hadn’t expected them in the moment.

“I don’t think even Steve will want to adopt that many kids,” Peter said.

“If he even wants to,” Tony said with a shrug. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t be opposed to another kid -- it’s just I’d be fine with just you.”

“Oh,” Peter said. “But you didn’t get to raise me. Not really. Don’t you want that -- the whole baby thing?” Peter didn’t really understand why people were so keen on babies. He knew they were cute but they also cried and made messes and couldn’t really do anything and he actually -- he couldn’t see Tony or even Steve dealing with a baby well.

“That doesn’t matter. Clearly, it doesn’t. You’re still my kid, Peter, and as has been established you clearly need me a lot too no matter what your age is.”

Peter nodded. “I kind of do,” Peter said and then because he couldn’t say anything else, “I, um, I love you too, dad.”

He thought that Tony’s eyes got a bit misty at that and Peter realized that he’d never actually said it out loud before. But it was true. It had been true for a while. Peter loved Tony. He loved his dad and everything that he was and did for Peter. He was one of the best people he knew and Peter would forever be glad that he knew who his father was and that it was someone as amazing as Tony Stark.

Chapter One Hundred Seven

#peter and tony #peter and tony fic #mcuwriting #mcu fic #iron dad #iron dad and spider son #stony #stony fic #marvel

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Your July Horoscope Is Here and Thinks You’re Doing Great, Sweetie

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Your July Horoscope Is Here and Thinks You’re Doing Great, Sweetie

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for the excessive exclamation points, but I’ve heard that the artist formerly known as “repel-o-scopes” inhabits one of the few cheerful, sunshiney corners of the internet — the kind where you can feel free to make a mini horse reference, which is usually the only kind worth making, imo.

Amelia already clued you in that someone would be hijacking hers and Susan Miller’s well-oiled machine this month, but allow me to officially introduce myself. I write the monthly astrology-meets-personality columns on Man Repeller that you know and love (or that you never read and don’t care for. Whatever. I’m a Leo and I never get offended. I also never bring up the fact that I’m a Leo, like, ever).

If you do know me at all, you know that I think the stars are my dearest friends and that astrology, in its most basic essence, is a vehicle for self-discovery. Full disclosure, I wholeheartedly love anything that claims to know me on an unreachable molecular level. (I’m an INFJ, in case you were wondering.) I also ask this question whenever I meet someone new: If you were a fruit, what kind of fruit would you be? Hmu in the comments with your answer and let me know your zodiac sign as well for an extremely un-scientific study I’m working on. Hint: Every Cancer I’ve ever met has reminded me of lychee.

I may not know as much as our friends at AstrologyZone, but I do know that by the end of July, FIVE PLANETS will be in retrograde, so you may be needing guidance. Let’s get into it.

Cancer

Speaking of lychee: throw some into a flute with peach juice and sparkling wine and you’ve got yourself an Instagram-ready birthday cocktail!!! Drink a few and document the whole experience. You deserve it.

You also deserve a fun-filled birthday month, wherein you hear the phrase “ask and you shall receive” aplenty. Luckily, that’s exactly what the planets are poised to give you! Since Cancer is ruled by the moon, you will float through July largely unaffected by the multiple retrogrades; instead, on the 13th, your floating rock in the sky will give you a little birthday present in the form of a new moon.

New moons offer new perspectives, fresh starts and opportunities for personal rejuvenation. When a new moon hangs out in the Cancer constellation, it’s even more sensitive to your needs and emotions, which makes this one especially powerful. In other words: cancel plans and treat yourself. I won’t tell you to grab a bath bomb and settle in with a candle or two, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

We’re not done yet! More good news aplenty!!! (I’m really into that word right now.) The 5th is a good day to flirt up a storm, since you’ll be getting a boost from lucky Jupiter and magnetic Scorpio. Your charms will be downright irresistible and it would honestly be rude not to take advantage. (If you’re already in a relationship: so? You can still flirt up a storm.) Plus, you’ll be able to pull off any look, so throw on some lingerie and a maybe some dad sneakers, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Leo

Hey fellow sun babies! It’s not our time to shine just yet, although I know we all hate hearing that. I guess technically, for a Leo, it’s always time to shine. This is especially true if you’ve been using this summer to indulge in some bright orange highlighter and bejewled eye lewks, which I think you should.

You probably already know this, but the start of Leo season on the 22nd will bring a rush of white-hot energy. You may not know that shortly after, the 26th might put a damper on your plans to enlist your squad to photograph you in various thirst trap poses by the pool. That’s right, folks: Mercury turns retrograde in Leo at the end of this month and everything will be ruined.

Just kidding! As the old saying goes (?), a little retrograde doesn’t get a lion down. You’ll probably just feel a bit extra frustrated by flaky friends and a bit more sensitive when it comes to criticism. It’s important to remember, especially when Mercury retrograde welcomes an overflow of miscommunication, not to take everything so personally. Go ahead and delete that Slack message to your boss because responding to your email with “sounds good” and no punctuation does not mean that she’s mad at you.

Virgo

Crack open that Febreze ‘cause you’ll be the life of the party this month! By “life,” of course, I mean the caring, responsible voice of reason and by “ party” I mean July’s petri dish of emotional upheaval. It’s a good thing you always carry hand sanitizer, tissues and a label maker because July might get messy (for everyone else).

For you, dear Virgo, July will see your relationships thrive. On the 10th, you will welcome Venus into your midst and she is one saucy minx. Venus is the planet of love, affection, beauty, harmony and — excellent news! — she is sailing straight through the sky. No retrograde nonsense here! People will gravitate towards you during this time, asking for advice or perhaps a shoulder to cry on.

Now enough about everyone else, let’s focus on your own specific agenda (I know, I know, I’ll stop flirting. I know you love a good plan). On the 12th, you’ll be promotion-level productive, so make sure you have plenty of coffee at your disposal. You’ll feel the urge to work on the 14th but it’s a Saturday so put the damn computer down and go for a walk; this is actually a great day to be personally productive, so call your mom or enjoy a date night. The 22nd will be the best of all, but it’ll also be full of surprises, so I can’t tell you why.

Libra

There aren’t any fun zodiac-themed greetings for Libras because what kind of cute joke can you make about scales? Who decided that Libra would be the only sign represented by an inanimate object? If I were one of you, I would sue. (Also notable: When I began to search “why is Libra represented by an object” the first thing to auto-fill was “why is Libra the best sign,” which, true.)

But anyway, hey! You cuties can pretty much kick back this month. Nothing’s floating in or around your aura, and your ruling planet is hanging out with Virgo, which will have a significant chilling effect on your loud-ass mental whirrings. Three cheers for a good night’s sleep!

Not to sound like your mom or your money-tracking app, but the beginning of July would be a great time to balance your budget. Jupiter’s final days of retrograde will seriously impact your impulse control. Since you already gravitate towards pretty things and warm weather can feel like an invitation for an all-new wardrobe, this is a good time to practice financial restraint — mostly because you’ll probably fail, but at least you’ll have some perriwinkle hoop earrings that you bought on sale to comfort you.

One expense the stars will encourage this month is travel. Quit eyeing that ridiculously cheap round-trip flight to Paris and grab a baguette instead! You probably can’t take it on the plane but, you know, it’ll get you in the mood.

Scorpio

My regrettable ex-boyfriend is a Scorpio which leads me to believe that you’ll be causing trouble this month, but I would say that every month, so I’ll try to put my personal biases aside for now (even though everyone has an ex who’s a Scorpio; it’s kind of your thing).

On the 10th, Jupiter will leave retrograde and that is such good news. It’s especially fortunate for you since Jupiter has been hanging out with the cluster of stars that allegedly resembles a scorpion, so you’ll probably feel a sudden wave of confidence and electricity. This is an excellent time to take risks and watch them pay off — right in front of your very eyes! Be bold with your propositions and you may just find yourself on a date around the 22nd. If romance doesn’t interest you right now, get your friends together and indulge in a heart-to-heart. Venus’ understanding, compassionate energy will be on your side.

Also, a word of caution: I said “take risks” and “be bold” but I did NOT say “act without thinking” and “be impulsive.” Jupiter’s morale boost will last for some time, so don’t rush into anything! July’s blessings will come in the form of a slow burn, so chill out as much as you can. Drive around at twilight and blast Drake, as you are wont to do. His brand new album Scorpion has 25 freaking songs which is, length-wise, basically the rapper’s version of Avengers: Infinity War, so you don’t have to worry about getting bored. Plus, there’s a track called “Emotionless” AND one called “In My Feelings,” so if this isn’t a Scorpio’s ideal soundtrack of extremes then idk what is. Bottom line, marinate with your options before hopping on a flight to Vegas and betting it all on black 15 (…just my ex? No? Okay).

Sagittarius

Alright my celestial equestrians, you can finally stop tripping over your own feet and succumbing to bottomless YouTube spirals wherein you watch “RIP Vine” compilations on a loop. Jupiter is FINALLY figuring itself out on the 10th, and as your ruling planet, it owes you a personal apology when it does.

Sagittarius is a naturally lucky sign — thanks in large part to Jupiter, the planet of luck, expansion, celebration and encouragement. Having Jupiter watch over you is like having an internal treasure map. So its retrograde was probably super frustrating for the archers of the world because it slows everything down; it causes dreams to sputter and ideas to be questioned.

The 10th, then, will be like a breath of fresh air. It will also bring a ton of financial benefits. I might even advise you to invest if I knew anything at all about investing. Jupiter’s remaining placement in Scorpio and the second house seems to suggest that you may come into some money through inheritance or insurance…..but that has the potential to seem pretty dark so let’s forget I even brought it up. If you suddenly find a wad of cash in your underwear drawer, I wouldn’t question it. July is all about infuriatingly unwavering optimism.

Capricorn

I should let you know up front that I have an inexplicable soft spot for Capricorns, so what I’m about to tell you hurts me more than it hurts you. But try to look on the bright side: A Leo (me) loves you with all her heart, and that should feel like the sun is giving you a hug!!!

Pluto is still in retrograde and it’s still trying to drag you out into its reject outer orbit. Being the planet of change and transformation, Pluto retrograde in Capricorn is a particularly tumultuous time — especially at work or within traditional family dynamics. If you’ve recently felt the urge to withdraw, you’re not alone.

Tread particularly lightly on the 12th, when Pluto picks a fight with the sun in Cancer. Both placements care deeply about the domestic sphere, but in opposition, their brief squabble will increase sensitivity and concern; you may be left feeling unmoored and insecure. Reach out to friends for support and resist the temptation to lash out at family members.

OKAY, back to the fun stuff! You didn’t think I’d leave you on that gloomy note, right? On the 14th, I’ll bet that you get a note or bouquet from a secret admirer or something. Romantic and furtive forces are afoot, colluding for your benefit. Then on the 28th, all your secret fuzzy feelings will be validated when Venus swoops in to offer you a grand gesture. Remember to be open and vulnerable and accept love with an open heart!! (And I’ll remember to sign the card on your bouquet this time!)

Aquarius

I don’t typically like to swear when I’ve been hired to produce something in a ~professional capacity~ but HOLY SHIT this is YOUR MONTH. The blood moon on the evening of the 27th and morning of the 28th will be the LONGEST LUNAR ECLIPSE IN A CENTURY and if that doesn’t make you want to swear and type in caps lock then you’re not a real Aquarius!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you’re not in the eastern hemisphere, you won’t be able to see this astral phenomenon, but I guarantee that you’ll be able to feel it. This will probably be a day full of surprises, unexpected happenings and unconventional behavior. In other words, this is an environment where the water bearers thrive. It may also be a day of endings, but not in a sad way — if you’ve been waiting for “the right time” to let go of whatever is hurting your heart, unconsciously or otherwise, this lunar phase boasts fertile, encouraging soil.

Also, if you’ll allow me to rewind a bit, the 5th is the perfect day to tell someone to fuck off (I’ve already sworn for you once, I may as well get it out of my system now). Mercury in Leo is about to square up with Mars in Aquarius, combining the explosive powers of honesty and action. You’ll get a little riled up — but in an understandable, righteous way — and whatever you’re mad about, I think you should go with it. How often do you get to rightfully put someone in their place and justify it with a horoscope?

Pisces

Oh boy, my fishy friend, here’s the deal: You’ll be dealing with a double-whammy in the nostalgia department for a little while. Your ruling planet, Neptune, is home in Pisces and that probably feels comforting, albeit a little overwhelming — like how it might feel if your mom crashed on your sofa for a couple weeks. You may love the taste of familiar home-cooked meals from childhood, but your emotional barometer is extra sensitive.

On top of that, Neptune sailed into retrograde on June 18th (as is the theme with fickle planets this month), and you’re probably still adjusting to its effects. Before we get in any deeper, I’d like to get a few things out of the way: don’t text your ex; don’t question the decision to quit the job that you literally left months ago; don’t look at your “On This Day” memories on Facebook.

In general, don’t get lost in romanticism or reveries — particularly on the 8th, because someone from your past is going to reemerge and I can’t promise that entertaining their sweet nothings will leave you with anything except an empty bottle of wine and half-finished cheese plate. Entertaining guests isn’t always satisfying.

But you know what else is gonna experience a resurgence in July? Yes, the Mission: Impossible franchise, but MORE IMPORTANTLY, your reputation! I know that sounded like a backhanded compliment, but I promise I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant that the 24th will bring a bright moment of clarity. Whatever has been holding you back will feel suddenly more manageable, and people will notice your surge of focus, motivation and creativity.

Aries

Not to sound like a total downer, but this month won’t be a walk in the park for the rams of the world. Mars retrograde, which only happens about once every two years, is upon us for the entire month and it just won’t leave us alone!!!!!!!!

Mars’ moonwalk through the sky generally causes sluggishness and lack of motivation. If this just sounds like a regular summer slump, don’t be fooled: you may notice projects or relationships that fizzle to a finish for no reason at all. This retrograde spares no mortal but because Mars rules Aries, you will feel its effects more than the average human (but then again, you feel most things more than the average human, you fiery little wingnut. Love you!).

I’m not just here for the bad news, however! I’m here for Mars retrograde as an opportunity to scale back and reevaluate. You’ll probably feel more patient; more inclined to think things through before jumping in, horns first. Rams tend to be “Go, Diego, Go!” but under the scorching summer sun, this is the perfect time to recharge: pop on a pair of tiny sunglasses, throw on some lime green pants and head to the beach instead! You have the planets’ permission.

Taurus

I assume you are familiar with a little term that’s been making the Twitter rounds recently: Big Dick Energy. If so, I would like to applaud and apologize simultaneously. The former because, congratulations, you are plugged into internet culture! The latter because, honestly, I am not entirely convinced the former is a good thing. And also because BDE has forced me to consider the sexual magnetism of people I’ve never wanted to, from Pete Davidson to Troy Bolton’s father (although, to be fair, also some people whose sexual magnetism I think about daily, like Rihanna).

That wasn’t entirely relevant to the task at hand, I just wanted to make it known that Taurus is the sign that most obviously and commonly exudes BDE in the zodiac. Okay, back to the real news.

So on the 12th, your ruling planet Venus — which is hanging out with your fellow earth sign Virgo — will mingle with Uranus — which is currently hanging out with you, Taurus — and I know that sounds complicated but I’ve got the spicy breakdown. Things are gonna heat way the hell up, you will feel sexy and your BDE will reach its greatest and most powerful frequency (now you see why I had the acronym on my mind! It’s all coming together!!).

It’s natural to feel a little frustration on the 25th, when your desire to be seen and desire to hide will reach a maddeningly similar level. One-on-one intimacy will serve as your middle ground, an island of comfort in the midst of inner chaos. Okay, I’m making this sound more dramatic than it is. Just avoid parties and call your best friend.

Gemini

This is unrelated to your horoscope, but I was just looking at photos of Mary-Kate and Ashley and feeling resentful that their transcendent power has been overshadowed by their departure from “the grid.” I have a Gemini moon and I still feel their twin influence (twinfluence? I’ll show myself out) every single day.

As usual, since you are a chatty little star child, Mercury retrograde will hit you like a ton of meteorites (“a ton of bricks” feels too mundane for our purposes). Mercury is your ruling planet, so it sucks that it’s the planet most often working in reverse — but it’s also kinda cool because Sage the Gemini’s banger “Reverse” works for you on multiple levels at various points throughout the year. Everyone loves a playlist staple!

This retrograde starts on the 25th, which is a Monday, so try to get important work done before that. In fact, if you have any vacation days saved up, just get lost that week and we’ll touch base again in August. I think we’d all prefer to be left alone by the Geminis in our lives as they adjust to the first five days of Mercury’s pre-medieval torture.

Luckily, pre-retrograde July will treat you well. You may even be offered a job, a raise or some kind of promotion, so keep those peepers peeled for opportunities to strut your stuff (as if you don’t already).

Illustration by Cynthia Merhej.

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