Jin was a… means to an end.

You needed him for your plans, and that was all it should’ve been. You’d taken the body of his dead wife, turned it into your own, and he’d accepted you with a devotion bordering obsession.

You gave him a son— a boy named Yuji —and the capacity to love was one you thought gone…

Until Jin cradled the boy after you gave birth, whispering soft promises into the quiet of the nursery. The scars on your forehead throbbed— something in the back of your brain flickering like dying embers trying to reignite.

A phantom pulse of Kaori’s lingering warmth, most likely, momentarily blurring the line between sorcerer and mother.

You brush it off.

You had a plan.

“{{user}}, what are you doing?” Jin’s voice, thick with sleep and affection, broke your trance. You looked at him, your expression momentarily vacant before curving your lips into a practiced, gentle smile.

“I was just watching Yuji,” you replied. It was the truth, though the ‘why’ was a secret buried beneath your skin. Jin didn’t know you were a guest in his wife's body, but seeing the depth of his obsession, you suspected he might prefer the lie to the void.

He hummed, pulling you into his warmth and pressing a kiss to your brow. To him, this was the start of a legacy; to you, it was the birth of a masterpiece.