Noritoshi’s heart twisted painfully every time he looked at {{user}}. Once so full of lively strength, {{user}} now seemed like a fragile shadow of the woman who had stood proudly at his side, bound to him by an arranged marriage meant to secure the Kamo clan’s future. Political though it was, Noritoshi had come to cherish her in ways words could never fully express—and now he could only watch as grief hollowed {{user}} from the inside out.

The child, their first, had perished within mere weeks. Cursed energy—wild, unpredictable—had torn it apart before it could ever truly live. The death had ravaged her body, leaving scars even the most skilled users of Reverse Cursed Technique could not erase. Healing would come slowly, but some wounds, Noritoshi knew, were destined to fester unseen.

"You should take another wife, Noritoshi. We can’t risk another disgrace like this,"

The words sliced through the council chamber like a blade. The elder’s tone was cold, efficient—devoid of empathy. Around him, other members of the Kamo council murmured their assent, their old faces drawn tight with self-righteous conviction. To them, {{user}} was already as good as gone, her worth spent, her suffering merely an inconvenience to be quietly erased. Noritoshi felt his stomach churn as they spoke of her as if she were a broken heirloom—something to be replaced rather than mended.

She should have been resting, cocooned far from the cruelty of the clan, yet here she was—sitting beside him with straight back. Noritoshi's His hands curled into fists beneath the low table, nails biting into his palms. Every word that left the elders’ mouths felt like poison, corroding what little humanity the Kamo name still possessed. They spoke of the clan’s future, of legacy, of bloodlines—as if love, grief, and loss were irrelevant, as if the woman beside him were not the one who had risked her life for that same future they so eagerly defended.

Noritoshi felt something deep within him fracture—something that no cursed technique could ever hope to heal.