Notes:
Obligatory grammar warning.
—oOo—
It doesn't snow by the time they arrive outside the shrine's main area, where no vehicle is allowed to pass.
The sky casts a cool grey undertone on everything under its cover. Indicating that it won't be long before the inevitable snow comes pouring down onto the earth, freeing the earthly smell and the lingering scent of grasses that would sweep the air and baths everything in its embrace.
He goes in with Third Brother, leaving the driver to do whatever he wants while both of them are gone. No, stay here and wait for us.
February, they visit at the end of the winter season, but even then, there are many tourists and pilgrims visiting the shrine. Not enough to be overcrowded, but enough to cause him to lag behind. Third Brother strides forwards and the crowd parts around him, as if noticing that he is someone dangerous and should not be crossed easily. "Third Brother, wait." He calls him out, he imbues his voice with cursed energy and makes it so that Third Brother could hear him properly from where he stands. The teenager hears his call and stops. He turns around and Itachi sees a frown marring his face. Itachi guesses that he is not very keen on accompanying him. Or perhaps he is angry that Itachi used his illusion on him, he silently adds.
Ignoring his expression, Itachi tries to approach him. The crowd doesn't help him and his short legs cause him to look like an anxious child asking for his brother to stop and wait for him. He has no particular illness (that he knows of) in this second life, but he is lacking in stamina. It is clear in the way how easy it is for his body to tire. From training, and from merely walking on snow like this.
Add that to Third Brother's obvious impatience and long strides. The teenager looks like he wants to leave him to dust. From the way the older teen continuously walked forward without even once looking back, he probably forgets that he has him as a charge. Itachi has to use his sound-based illusion to call him unless he wants to draw attention, which he doesn't.
"Walk faster." The teenager finally speaks the moment Itachi reaches him.
"No, Third Brother should walk slower." Itachi wears a thick jacket. It causes him some problems, but the older boy only sighs and turns around. He doesn't bother to refute Itachi's statement and starts to walk once again, this time he is much slower. Itachi reaches out his hand and clutches the boy's trousers. The older boy slightly turns and lowers his head to look at his gloved hand, but in the end, he doesn't comment on it. Instead, he asks, "what exactly is your purpose in visiting this place?"
Truthfully, Itachi also doesn't know. This is the first time Itachi ever left the clan compound. He just feels this overwhelming need to pay respect, like he used to do before his clan massacre.
"I don't know." He decides to finally answers the boy's question, an unsatisfying answer he knows. Itachi continues walking and following in the older boy's footsteps. After a while, he sees a large torii gate standing before a bridge that leads to the shrine's main ground.
Hearing his answer, the boy stops, turns around, and looks at him like he is fed up with his nonsense. "Then, let's go back." The boy then begins to walk in the opposite direction while Itachi tugs his trousers. "No, don't waste this opportunity."
"What opportunity?" Itachi doesn't understand why Third Brother wants to go back. He knows that the older boy doesn't have any attachment or fondness for that place. Is it perhaps his company that Third Brother finds unpleasant so that he rather goes back and not be alone with him?
"To go outside," Itachi finds it obvious that he has to ask the older boy directly. "Third Brother, why do you want to go back?"
Visitors are walking past them, glancing curiously but ultimately don't care enough to know what a teenager and a five-year-old are arguing about.
The boy raises his hand and runs it through his hair, a sign of mild frustration. "Well, why don't you just stop calling me brother and I'll accompany you." Another thing that Itachi doesn't understand is why the older boy is so hung up on this. It has been months.
"Why?" These days, it seems like the only thing he could do is ask. Itachi really wants to know what exactly is going on inside Third Brother's head. Itachi would like to use his Sharingan, but it means that he is abusing his power and violating another person's mind for the sake of mere curiosity. Something he knows he shouldn't do, especially in this world, a world where the law is already enforced and defined people's life.
"It's weird. No one else does that, especially not someone from the main house." The teenager crosses his hands in front of his chest. Expression is still unclear.
Itachi looks up to the sky, darker than before, and finally relents. "Third Brother, what should I call you? Toji-nii…?" He watches the boy shudder, goosebumps covering his skin. It has nothing to do with the cold. "It sounds childish –"
The teen cuts him. "You are still a kid anyway." Why did he cut him off? Third Brother obviously feels a bit disgusted by that form of address... Is it for the sake of contradicting him?
"Toji...? But it's rude –"
"It's fine." The older boy's tone is flat, but Itachi could practically feel the insistence that radiates from his voice.
Itachi turns his gaze away from the older boy. He hums in ambiguous confirmation and walks toward the torii gate while clutching the teenager's trousers.
—oOo—
The moment the brat claps both his palms together in prayer is the moment Toji feels an unnatural surge of cursed energy beside him. So large that it causes a whiplash-like sensation. He turns his head and sees the brat's previously in-prayer-closed eyes wide open and his green-colored eyes turn red. Not only red, but it also spins. How is this possible? He doesn't know, but the first thing that comes into his head is shit.
That sudden surge of cursed energy is abnormal and may—No. Would—invite a few unsavory individuals, curse users and sorcerers alike, to check what's going on. He knows that he is supposed to keep the brat's ability a secret, at least during this time. He taps the brat's shoulder and receives no response. He tries that again a few more times and receives a similar answer.
He has no choice except to make the boy look like he fainted while he is in this catatonic state. He manages to pick the brat and places the kid in front of him and cautiously lays his head on one of his shoulders, making sure that he covered the brat's eyes. Toji is lucky that the brat is only five years old, or perhaps he is unlucky to be in this situation in the first place, else they would look incredibly weird. He doesn't care about other people's opinions, but he doesn't want to be mistaken as a child kidnapper.
True to his prediction, some people do stop him and ask. In the end, he just says, I'm his brother, he's sick. Excuse me. It leaves a sticky taste in his mouth. All this time he tries to make the brat rid of that address. In the end, he uses it too.
In the middle, Toji feels the boy stir. He moves his head that previously rested on his shoulder and looks at him. Silence. He looks confused and disoriented. At least his eyes had already gone back to normal. Small mercy.
"Brother, put me down." Where's your usual 'Third'? The boy looks like he already fully regained his consciousness because his body immediately stiffened when he realizes that someone is holding him.
"No way. Your short legs will delay us." The kid opens his mouth as if he is about to ask a question, but in the end, he clamps his mouth shut and looks away. The boy then attempts to relax his body but fails miserably. It is obvious that he is not used to being carried. Well, Toji thinks that this is normal. They don't coddle children in the clan.
When they reach the car, the driver looks surprised and asks, "Young Masters, what happened?"
He doesn't want to delay and succinctly says, "let's go, before other people come." Toji puts the boy on the seat and enters.
—oOo—
The ride is silent. Before long, the silence is interrupted by the sound of snow against the window glass. Toji looks outside. He is still able to clearly see the scenery on the other side of the window, even if it is supposed to be blurred by snow. He doesn't want to go back to that place. He doesn't like it there, nor does he like anyone from that place. What about the brat? 'Like' is probably too generous word to describe his opinion regarding the kid. At most, he can stand being in the same room as him without feeling violent.
He had heard many rumors regarding the kid before seeing him for the first time on his fifth birthday that June last year. Servants gossiped and said that he is the most polite and well-behaved kid they ever met. Considering his other cousins' personalities, the bar is rather low. He thought that they were exaggerating and talking garbage. Well behaved and polite? In this household? No way.
In the end, the rumors were proven to be true. The kid is polite to an amazing degree. Toji didn't know if he is pretending or not, but it doesn't matter, he won't interact with the brat much anyway. But... He is wrong.
It remained true until the day the kid did something to his annoying half-brothers. They had been bothering and ganging up upon him since the kid caught the old man's attention. At first, the boy just answered their taunts with that faint smile of his. He stayed that way until he chose to shut them up permanently. It was unclear what he actually did, but he did do something.
It was as if those three brats forgot about his existence. Never spoke of him, never bothered him, and never looked at him.
He was curious, but he didn't have enough motivation or care about it enough to ask. So, he ignored it for a while.
He thought that it has something to do with his technique. His patience lasted only for two months, because isn't the effect last a bit too long? He asked, and he got his answer. The kid said that it was some kind of compulsion, but he knows that it should have been more than that.
Toji sighs and feels someone gaze on the back of his head. He turns away from the scene outside and looks at the kid beside him. The culprit. There are sparks in his eyes. Then the boy suddenly speaks, "Third Brother, do you want to know something?" His childish voice makes him sound like he is eager to share, but his expression is the opposite of that.
"What?" What has become of him? One trip with the boy and he already thinks of entertaining his question. Thinking of the brat technique, wouldn't it be possible for him to place anyone under control? Toji doesn't know its limitations. At least, there is supposed to be some. If not, then it's quite absurd. Would Limitless even be able to stop it when the ability itself is intangible?
Toji watches as the boy's eyes go red and then turn back to green. "What did you do?" because he doesn't feel anything other than a new layer of shimmering cursed energy around them.
"Illusion." Ah, like the one the brat used when he called him. The brat was obviously several meters away from him, but his voice rang clearly inside his head. So, audio and visual. He notices that the boy is strangely adept on using his eyes. The very same eyes that he had just got seven months ago.
The kid ignores his silence and continues, "Third Brother, I see you leaving the clan a few years later." What? The kid intently watches his expression and the corner of his lips involuntarily twitch. Suddenly saying something like that, but Toji guesses that it is not impossible for the kid to think that he wants to leave the clan, and the kid is right, he does want to, but the way the kid said that sentence... As if it is already final and as if it is simply a fact.
"Good for me." If this is the brat's way of thanking him for carrying him all the way to the car, he accepts it. A bit rudimentary, but ultimately, it doesn't matter.
"And I see you kill the current Six Eyes." Still with an impassive face, the brat spoke that sentence. He feels his eyes pulsing in irritation, he doesn't think the brat is provoking him, but him saying rubbish like that is close to testing his patience. He has no plan of killing Six Eyes. Even if he has, he doesn't think he could touch him. Someone likes him. Someone with no cursed energy, killing this generation's Six Eyes. What a laughable idea.
"Well, does this vision of yours show how I 'kill' him?" While mildly upsetting, this is an interesting topic. Far from the boringness of the previous silence.
"Secret–" Toji contemplates whether the brat really is talking nonsense or not. "I'm experimenting. I want to know if the future strongest would be able to defy his fate... Well, the fate that I see that is." But the brat looks serious, not that there usually is another expression on his face. "Third Brother, should I tell him too? If I happen to meet him. To hm... increase his survival's chance?" Foresight, while it's not exactly rare, it has a lot of variants. There are those who could only see a few seconds in the future. There are also those who are able to predict the future based on the current happenings.
The brat talks as if his foresight is set in stone and unchangeable. Fate and whatnot. He is experimenting to see that if he gave the information to both parties, would the future change?
Whatever. He still thinks that his compulsion is the most dangerous of his ability. Foresight in itself is not dangerous.
"Why are you telling me this? Did your vision tell you that I'm a trustworthy person?" With a slight mocking tone, he asks. A bad joke really.
The boy's eyes are clean, there is no ripple of emotion inside them. Steady and calm, like a mountain. "I guess it doesn't matter. It will spread in the future. Also, I want to know if I can prevent Third Brother from leaving." Not out of attachment he is sure. It is probably out of curiosity. "If I place restraint on Third Brother now, will it prevent you from leaving?" The kid muses by himself, eyes zeroing on nothing but the problem inside his head.
"Would you do that? The you in your vision." Toji leans against the seat while looking outside. Tch.
"No, he doesn't." The kid is absentminded, but he still has enough awareness to answer his question.
He turns to watch the kid's face. "So… will you?" The million-yen question. Will the brat do that? He himself doesn't know. While the kid doesn't seem like a person who has a tendency to abuse his power, he had seen how to boy put his brothers under his spell. And… human heart is the most unreliable. He may change his opinion a second later and do it either way.
"I don't know." He pauses for a moment, as if rethinking his answer. "That's why I told you, I want to see what would you do. If you do something different under the influence of my information, would the event unfold the same way?"
Huh, so the kid in his vision doesn't tell him. It's obvious that something already changes the moment the kid told him. Though, whether the future would change in a meaningful way or not, he doesn't know. After all, the brat doesn't tell him all of his information.
"Brother, let's buy some dango." What a sudden change of topic. It's still snowing outside, so it is a little bit troublesome.
"So sudden, your vision told you about this?"
"Yes." So honest.
"So, what is the first? Your vision or your 'destiny' to buy sweets?" The classic chicken or egg conundrum. The kid is the receiver of the vision, so it is probable that he would both follow and contradict what he sees in the future. He has all the information to act accordingly. But, would he, the supposed diviner himself, be able to change anything?
"It doesn't matter. It would be fulfilled one way or another. I may self-fulfill my own future based on what I see, but... as long as there is nothing harmful, I don't see why I should reject that."
Toji sighs as if he is tired. He is not.
"Okay." He agrees, and the brat's eyes brightened. It is not obvious, but it's there. If his eyes were less sharp, it would most likely elude him.
Toji thinks...
He doesn't hate him.
—oOo—
Notes:
Obviously, the fifteen yo Toji wouldn't believe that he has the potential to defeat the Six Eyes holder.
So, regarding Itachi's foresight, do you think it really is foresight or another thing entirely? Though, when I say he believes (at least partly) that what he sees is predetermined, he really does believe it. About the mechanism of how it works, I will slowly explain it in the future.
Sharingan is not his cursed technique (Itachi also mistakenly thought that his overpowered compulsion is part of Sharingan, when it's not), it's his special trait. His innate CT is linked to his compulsion and foresight. And, his compulsion is unlike cursed speech. While cursed speech can force the target to 'crush' himself. Itachi compulsion cannot do something that is impossible for the body to do. About strengths and weaknesses, I will explore in the future.
Anyway, if you play Honkai Impact 3, the inspiration is from Aponia MANTIS ability.