Bad Omen

by ItsLia4U

"I wish we had never met." I told him, stroking his face carefully. "I wish we had never met." I told him again, feeling his body turning cold. It almost felt surreal. Being used to death and now fearing it. It's kind of ironic how I had the power of death and I still couldn't save the people I loved the most.

1. Prologue

Report: October 2005, Sakurai - First recorded appearance of the special grade cursed spirit "Izanami" — Thirteen people lost their lives that day.

The routine was always the same. I wake up, shower, get dressed and train. Some days I am lucky enough not to be physically punished. But today wasn't one of those days. I was awakened by the background noise in the rest of the house. My eyes had trouble adjusting to the brightness coming from the open window. I grunted softly, hiding my face in my pillow. I felt tired. It was another poorly slept night, with horrible nightmares. My mind reminded me of the bloody scenes from my dreams, where I was the victim.
I look at the ground and I notice my omamori is out of place, once again. I couldn't understand why from all the protection amulets around the house, mine was the only one who fell to the ground. I could almost hear the mocking voice of my father saying it's because I'm a bad omen and bad things will always follow me.
There was a background laughter, almost unnoticeable. It was Machiavellian and frightening. I've heard it ever since I was very young. The worst part was knowing that I was the only one who heard this sinister laugh. Occasionally, the laughter was accompanied with visions of shadows. When I was younger, I thought they were curses, wandering around the house. But after realizing that I was the only one who experienced these hallucinations, I discarded that idea. I was going crazy; it was the only explanation. I sighed deeply, getting up slowly, whimpering with the movement.
There wasn't a single inch of my body that didn't hurt. It could be from the intensive training I had every day for endless hours. Or it could be from the beatings I suffered after falling exhausted to the floor. The voices that woke me up had gone strangely silent and the only thing I could hear were heavy footsteps coming toward my room. My heart raced. What time was it? It was all too fast, one moment I was sitting on the futon and the next minute I was being dragged by my hair out of my room.
"Didn't I already tell you I didn't like delays? Tell me!" I heard.
My body froze, I could feel my body temperature drop, my hands started to sweat and I began to shiver. My scalp was burning with so much pain, and it felt like my neck was going to snap in two because of the position I was in.
"Father, please! I didn't know I was late!" I cried, grabbing the hand that was gripping my hair, trying to disentangle his fingers from my scalp.
Half of my body was being dragged along the floor and I could feel my skin being cut and scratched by the gaps in the wood. Worst of all, was the shame of seeing people who stopped talking to see what was happening, looking at me with disdain and hatred. I couldn't hide my face because of the tightness in my hair, forcing me to look each person in the eye. Some smiled, some whispered, some just watched as I was dragged from my room to the garden. Garden? Training was always indoors, why were we going to the garden?
I finally managed to have a reaction, grunting and squirming my body to try to stop us from reaching the garden. When I realized that twisting around and trying to pull my father's fingers out of my hair didn't work, I started to hold my feet in strategic places, with the intention of getting stuck. But all my efforts were in vain. We came to an abrupt stop, and I felt hands under my arms and a kick to my back, falling to the grass and hitting my head on one of the stones that adorned the garden.
"Get up." My father said, sternly.
"I can't..." I whispered, losing strength in my knees and hands.
The air abandoned my lungs just as I felt another kick, this time to the side of my body. "Tōro, the rod." My eyes widened upon hearing that. I turned my head quickly in my father's direction, watching Tōro pass the rod into his hands. My body moved before I could think, grabbing my father's feet.
"Please, please...don't do this to me." I begged, pathetically.
"Now you move?" He shouted, starting to hit me with the rod.
The people around started laughing. No... no one was laughing. But the laughter, I could hear laughter, louder than ever. Another impact of the stick. My body contorted, as if I had been electrocuted. My father was saying something, as he hit me, but I could only hear the laughter, which gagged me.
"You are the disgrace of this family." I heard him say, angrily. "You bring nothing but death and tragedy." Each word was synchronized with an onslaught of blows.
I could feel heat spreading down my back. Was it blood? Was the skin heating up from the attacks I was suffering? I think it was the first option because the part of the stick that was hitting me was bloody, causing my father to stop for a moment.
"Master Fujiwara..." Tōro tried to say something but stopped as soon as my father looked at him.
"I want the other one." Another one? What other one?
Tōro's eyes widened, between me and my father several times, until finally he went to get what he was asked for. When he came back, I could see what he had in his hands. I was horrified. It had blades, I could notice that as soon as I saw the light reflecting off the metal. Tōro hesitated for a moment, gripping it tightly until my father lost patience and snatched it from his hands.
I'm going to die; I was sure of it. It was never this bad. I have never felt this much hatred from my father. Adrenaline was pumping through my blood, and I could feel the urge to run. But run where? No one will help me. Why won't anyone help me?
"Do you want me to help you?" I could hear a voice. I couldn't tell who's voice it was, nor if it was a woman's voice or a male's voice.
"Help me... please..." I begged, coughing and sobbing with anguish.
"No one is going to help you, you freak!" My dad snarled.
But I heard it. I heard the voice, humming softly in my ear, soothing me, as if it was hypnotizing me. "If you want me to help you... just take my hand." They spoke. The voice wasn't soothing anymore, it sounded... primal, bordering on animalistic. I opened my eyes, and I saw its hand. I say 'it' because it wasn't human. It couldn't be. The claws, the rough, patchy skin, and did it have scales? I stretched out my hand, reaching out to touch it. This was my only way out. This was the first time someone or something tried to help me. I saw my father preparing himself to hit me with the bladed rod but, seconds before he could touch me, I was able to touch the hand.
Immediately, a guttural scream left my lips, scaring him. My body was burning, and it was as if the skin was melting off. My bones felt like knives cutting my muscles, it was such a horrible pain, I felt I could die from it. I could still hear the laugh, but it sounded so much closer, so much louder. And then I noticed that it was coming from me, I was laughing, but... it didn't sound like me. It sounded evil. It sounded inhuman. My body started moving all on its own, which surprised me because I was in so much pain, I didn't think I could even get up from the floor.
I could see the fear in my father's eyes. The cane had fallen from his grasp, doing a soft, muffled 'thunk' when it hit the grass. I noticed that he was looking up, which was odd cause he was way taller than me. I then looked at Tōro, who was terrorized, and he also was looking up. Was I, somehow, taller? No... I was floating?
"You... you demon!" My father cried, his voice breaking with horror.
I felt my lips moving, but I couldn't hear what I was saying, deafened by the screams of the people around me. Why were they screaming? The pain kept growing, this time, it felt like my skull was splitting open. "She's possessed!" I could hear people screaming. "Someone exorcise her!" Others would yell. Me? Possessed? No! I wasn't. I was in pain, why were people ignoring my pain? I fell another sharp pain, this time, on my back. I looked back and I saw my father, wielding the bladed cane.
"I should have killed you the night you were born." He said, dropping the cane. "I'll atone to my sins when I die, but I'll exorcise the evil out of your body right now." I started laughing, catching him by surprise. I couldn't tell if it was me who was laughing, or... someone else in me. But I let out a loud cackle, closing my eyes for a second. And then my lips moved on their own again. "You're too weak, old man. Your wife had more fire in her and guess who ate her soul?" I was shocked after I heard myself say that. Did this... thing, kill my mother? I saw my father's eyes widen with shock and I could see the rage seeping, boiling deep inside him. "Domain expansion-" My father's voice got stuck on his throat and it sounded like he was chocking. "Let me show you the true power of curses." Yet again, my lips moved, but I felt like a third person, watching inside from my body. "Domain expansion: Shadowy Land of The Dead*."
I felt my body getting sucked towards darkness. For a few seconds, I was unable to see, hear or smell anything. In a blink of an eye, I was standing in front of a huge Tori. There was a dark, red hue in the sky, it made it look like it was bleeding. I couldn't see my house anymore, I could only see mountains, dark mountains, resembling an infinite abyss of nothingness. There was an awful stench in the air. It was metallic and putrid. "Look at them." My face was pulled by an invisible forced, turning my whole body towards a small group of people below me. At first, I couldn't make out their faces, but after squinting my eyes, I gasped with horror.
Tōro was the first person I saw. His body was being pulled apart by... demons? No. Beasts... I couldn't name what they were, but I could see his skin ripping, and his bones breaking. He kept crying for help, but those things kept laughing and taunting him. "Let me go ask Master Fujiwara" one mocked him, continuing to twist his leg. My face was then pulled again by the same invisible force, and I saw different people being tortured. Some were being crushed by giant boulders. Others were being whipped until they had giant slashes on their bodies, cutting them in half. It was... barbaric.
Amongst so much torture, pain and screaming, I could see the shape of someone standing. "I saved the best thing for last." There it was; 'my' voice. "Old man, do you now see the true potential of my power?" My body floated down, and I could feel the skin of the bottom of my feet burning from the temperature. The black grass felt like broken glass, and I was sure I was leaving bloody footprints behind me, while I walked towards the figure. As I got closer, I saw him. It looked like my father, but his skin... his skin was filled with blisters and open wounds. I could hear him talk to himself, but I couldn't really understand him. He was scratching his arms, the force ripping his fragile skin away. "I can smell your fear from here, it's making my mouth water." I felt my mouth salivating, and my lips curled into a deranged smile.
"... control fear... I am... I do it..." my father mumbled, continuing to cut his skin even more. He looked so scared. Was I happy? I felt... almost avenged by seeing him like this. All of these years being tormented and abused by him, fearing him and everyone else in this household, and now... now he was the one who was terrified. "I'm going to devour your soul, just like I devoured your silly wife's soul, and I'm going to thoroughly enjoy it." My hand wrapped around his neck, and my nails penetrated his skin, almost decapitating him. "I am death. Look in my eyes and spend your eternity fearing me."
My father started screaming but it was cut by my mouth, biting his throat so viciously, I felt his warm blood splattering across my face. I wanted to throw up, but my body wouldn't obey me. I kept chewing, biting and slashing his body, as if I were a rabid animal. I wanted to cry, to scream and to make it stop, but I was being fueled by this demonic force. I could still see his face, stained by pure horror. Was this really what I wanted? To condemn my father to eternal fear?
I don't know how much time passed. I kept having flashbacks of people screaming while I attacked them, the feeling of their blood gushing from their bodies, and how I would enjoy the life slowly draining from their eyes. I realized I was standing on top of their bodies, laughing, licking their blood from my hands. "I can do it. I can sever it. I just have to kill you. There's no way... no way that after this much bloodshed I won't be able to do it." I said, laughing maniacally. Who was I talking to? No one was around. Was... was I talking to myself? Better yet, was 'it' talking to me?
I felt something pierce my chest. I looked down, and I saw my own hand inside of my body. The sound... the sound of gushing, and the feeling of my hand touching my organs made me sick. It didn't hurt, but it was such a strange feeling it made my skin crawl with disgust. I suddenly started to feel really tired and my legs lost their strength, causing me to fall to the ground. The red sky cracked open, revealing a grey, cloudy sky. The grass was starting to lose its black color and, due to the blood I was losing, turning red. My eyes were so heavy I almost didn't notice that the dimension where I was before had shattered completely, and I was back at the garden. I could hear faint voices far away. Maybe it was a dream. Maybe I got beat up so badly, that I started hallucinating this whole ordeal.
I could feel the small rumbling of someone running towards me, but I was starting to black out, my vision tunneling and darkening with each slow and heavy breath I took. After all of this suffering, was I really going to die? I wanted to laugh at the stupidity of it all. Surely, there had to be a purpose to all of this... right?

I woke up with an awful headache. It felt like I was hit by a truck over and over again. My eyes started to open up, slowly, and even though the place I was in was dimly lit, I still had issues getting used to the light.
"She's awake." I heard a male voice.
My eyes opened up instantly and I looked up, seeing a huge man in front of me. I tried to back away, only to realize I was bound to a chair. My breath grew heavy, and I started to freak up. What was this place? Who was this man?
"Where am I?" My voice sounded dry and raw, and my throat hurt badly.
The man continued to glare at me, without answering. My eyes darted around the room, in hopes I would find the answer. My eyes raked the floor, seeing multiple lanterns scattered around. I got startled when I noticed the silhouette of more people around the us, behind shoji screens.
"What is this place?" I asked again, louder this time. My body jerked forward when I tried to get up again, the chains around my body keeping me in place.
"I told you we should have killed her when she was unconscious!" One of the other men spoke.
"Kill me?" I asked, surprised. "Why would you kill me?"
"Do you remember what happened?" The first man that spoke with me asked, taking a step closer.
"What ha-" the sentenced died in my throat when I got bombarded with the memories of what had happened. "No... it was a dream..." I whispered, in pure shock.
It had to be a dream. Nothing that had happened seemed real. I was weak. I could have never... I started to have difficulty breathing, and my eyes filled with tears.
"She killed a whole clan; we can't let her live. She's a danger to jujutsu sorcerers."
"I didn't-" I screamed, closing my eyes. "I didn't kill anyone!"
"Don't lie, girl! You were drenched with your family's blood." Another male voice screamed, sounding accusatory.
"I didn't do it... I didn't..." I kept whispering, looking at the ground, while tears streamed down my face.
"When did you start helping the special grade?" The tall man asked, crouching down to look me in the eyes.
"What?" I shook my head, confused. "What are you talking about?"
"The special grade who possessed you." He clarified.
"I- I don't know!" I sobbed.
"That's enough, Yaga, the girl is playing dumb. We gave her a chance, let's just execute her and be done with this nonsense." The tall man sighed after hearing that, and stood up, crossing his arms.
"I'm not being a part of this." He said, turning around and starting to head out the door.
"Wait... wait!" I called out, terrified. "Don't do this, please!" I started crying more desperately.
Yaga looked over his shoulder, and I could see the conflict in his face. He sighed again, and shook his head, starting to walk away again. I felt as if a bucket of cold water was dropped all over my body. Yet again, no one was going to help me. I was utterly alone, and now I was going to die. This was it.
I could sense the men getting closer to me, surrounding me in a circle. I looked around, panicking. I didn't want to die... I sobbed louder, my body shaking with fear.

How many days had passed? Two? Maybe it was three? I had no idea. I was so tired, unable to sleep. I was hungry and thirsty as well. I felt weak.
"This is impossible!" I heard.
"What kind of curse is this?"
I almost wanted to laugh. Of course I'd also be unlucky when it came to dying. I was so useless I couldn't even die like a normal person. I lost count how many times these people tried to kill me. And, believe me, they tried everything. A clean stab to the heart. Beheading. Dismembering. Enchantments. Spells. Exorcism amulets. And here I was.
"We should try fire." One of the men spoke and my eyes bulged out of my head.
Silence inundated the room. What was wrong with these people? "You're not seriously thinking about using fire, right?" I asked, looking up at them.
"Why, demon, is that your weakness?"
I clenched my jaw, anger filling my being. I know my situation wasn't good and maybe it was the pain and torture I had suffered these past couple of days, but I couldn't stay quiet.
"It won't work." I simply said, but my voiced wavered.
How could I sound confident when I was being threatened with being burned alive? Everything they did to me, even though it didn't kill me, I could still feel it. Every ounce of pain they inflicted on me. It was inhumane. I was never offered food or something to drink. I had to pee myself because I couldn't leave the chair, and only god knows how I haven't had the desire to go number two.
"Do we use gasoline, or do we use a spell of combustion?" They couldn't be serious.
"You're monsters!" I screamed, and my voice broke with tears.
I shouldn't be crying after all of this time. I should have accepted my fate. But I couldn't understand why this was happening to me. Was I really born to endure such abuse?
"Shut your mouth!" I received a hard slap, and my body froze.
He was right. I should just stay quiet. Why would they listen to me? I continued to cry silently, biting my lips and clenching my fists to suppress any noises.
"Regular fire won't probably work." One man said. "I think there's a transcript with a sacred fire conjuration, I'll go grab it."
That same man walked out of the room, closing the door slowly. I kept staring at the door, the only thing I could hear was my heartbeat, beating harshly against my chest. It felt unreal. I almost had a sense of deja vu. All of the nightmares that would terrorize me every night, they were foreshadowing what would happen to me. A low, dry chuckle left my lips, and I allowed my head to fall forward, staring at the ground. What a shitty way to go.
I heard the door open again, and I looked up almost instantly. The man had a book under his arm, and a bottle filled with a dark, strange liquid. He didn't even give me time to get ready, pouring it over my head. My eyes started burning and I felt like I couldn't breathe. That seemed to wake my body from the shock, and I started squirming in my chair, moving my head side to side, trying to shake the black residue from my eyes.
I was so desperate I even tried to break the chains bounding me. "Please. Please..." I cried over and over, in hopes that one of them would come to reason and stop this. "I don't want to die..." I cried, with a broken voice. No one did anything. No one answered.
The man started drawing a circle around me with the same dark liquid he has poured on me. When he was done, he stood up and, after looking at the men around him, started reading the transcript. The men joined him. Almost instantly, the circle lit on fire. A blue, almost green fire, slowly filling the inside of the circle and getting closer and closer to my feet.
I started screaming, wanting to run from it. My arms were burning due to me pulling on the chains and I was almost sure that they were growing purple with poor blood flow. The voices of the men grew louder, extending their hands towards me and I saw the flame getting bigger. Everything felt like it was in slow motion.
The circle fully burning, the flames growing so much they were at the same level as my knees, and... of course, the burning feeling on the bottom of my feet that kept getting worse. If I weren't horrified, I'd be mesmerized by how pretty the flame looked, flickering my way, looking inviting and comforting.
The first lick of the flame was the worst. I couldn't keep myself quiet, crying in pain. It felt like my skin was coiling and getting melted, I could feel all of the hairs on body burning away and the smell was so horrible I felt the urge to throw up. The chains around my body started to heat up, adding to my suffering, and I could see my skin coming off and getting stuck to the metal.
My vision was so blurry I couldn't even see the outline of the men around me. It felt like I had lost my hearing, and all I could smell was my own body burning away. The tears on my cheeks almost instantly evaporated, and I guess after a while, I was unable to cry. I kept screaming or, at least, I thought I was.
My clothes were burning to a crisp, the flames engulfing about half of my body, slowly creeping its way to my face. 'Sacred fire', was what they called it, and yet it burned like hell.
I heard a loud sound in front of me and a loud scream after that. "What the hell is going on here?" I remembered this voice, but I felt so much pain my brain couldn't recall anything.
"Yaga, you're not allowed here. This is our business."
"It's been a week! I thought she would have been dead in the first hour after I left! This is torture." Yaga screamed.
Had it really passed a week since I got here? I almost wanted to laugh, a whole week without going to the bathroom? I couldn't move my body, and even if I wanted to speak, I don't think I'd be able to. But it didn't hurt anymore. At least, not as much as before. My body felt numb, and even if the flames kept burning me, I started to feel cold. I saw Yaga pushing his way over to me, and a large blanket was place over my body, in an attempt to extinguish the flames eating me alive.
"This is not how we do things." His voice sounded angry and, did I sense a touch of guilt? "We don't torture little girls."
I started to black out. I guess they were successful in killing me. I was in this blissful moment, my chest felt constricted but, overall, I mostly felt peace. I felt like I was floating for a while. At some point, I closed my eyes, and I think that was the scariest part. I knew that if I closed my eyes that meant they had succeeded. But after being unable to sleep for a week, my body was already shutting down.
Dying felt... peaceful. I could compare it with floating in the middle of the ocean. Tranquil. Serene. I started to feel a growing pain on my leg. No, why was I feeling pain if I was dead? The pain started to spread throughout my whole body. I had this burning, itching sensation spreading like wildfire. A pair of grey, scaled hands reached out to me from the darkness, wrapping around my neck with force.
My eyes shot open and my body jerked forward. I was inside a bathtub. My body was submerged in cold water.
"You were burning up." I heard.
I looked to where the voice came from and saw Yaga. He was sitting on the floor, looking at me. "At least your body is starting to heal up." I could sense the confusion in his voice.
"I shouldn't be alive." I mumbled.
"Yes, you shouldn't." His voice sounded resentful, and his eyes had an angry glint to them. "What they did to you... it shouldn't have happened and I'm sorry I didn't help you."
I stayed silent, not knowing how to respond. My eyes dropped to the murk-ish water around me, and I noticed my burnt clothes were dissolving. Although it wasn't clear, I could see the burns on my legs. I could feel my lower lip starting to shake, the need to cry overwhelming me. But no tears formed in my eyes.
Yaga's hand touched my shoulder and I flinched, recoiling from his touch. His face contorted with pain after fear flashed through my eyes. "I left clean clothes and a toothbrush for you. Take your time, I'll be outside." His voice was soft, and he left me alone in the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
I, slowly, pulled my knees closer to my chest, whimpering from the pain. My skin felt like rubber, every movement was accompanied by a stabbing pain, deep in my muscles. I looked at my arms, a clear liquid was oozing from the open gashes. My body was in a horrible state. But I was alive. I could hear my father chastising me from the afterlife, I was born out of misery, so my life had to be filled with it.
I don't know how long I stayed in the same position. The water kept growing darker and my body started to grow cold, and I could see my skin slowly healing under my attentive gaze. I moved my legs experimentally and I was surprised that I could move way better than before, the pain being more than bearable at this point. I stood up, starting to drain the tub and taking the clothes off of my body.
I took my first shower after a week. It felt ironically mundane, after everything that had happened. I dressed myself slowly, noticing that Yaga hadn't left me a pair of socks or shoes. I looked at my reflection in the mirror when I was brushing my teeth. My eyes had horrible, deep bags under them; the skin on my face was looking grey and my eyes were dull, looking back at me with a dead stare.
I slowly made my way out of the bathroom, and I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw Yaga walking around the room. He stopped and looked at me. "I brought you food." He pointed at a small, rounded table.
I looked around. The room was extremely plain and devoid of any decorations or interesting features. The walls were a harsh, soulless shade of bright white, making it feel sterile and cold. The only other furniture in the room was a single bed against the wall, with a grey duvet and a couple of pillows; a big, fluffy rug covering most of the floor; a basic brown leather sofa, and a small wooden book desk. Despite the lack of decor, the furniture itself was not dilapidated or falling apart; it simply showed no attempt at comfort or to be of a more traditional style.
Yaga stood still while I analyzed the room, waiting patiently for me to move or speak. I nodded with my head, and I think if he wasn't paying so much attention to my reaction, he would have missed it. My feet moved towards the table, and I sat in the wooden chair, looking at the food. I almost cried when I noticed it was sukiyaki.
"I know you're hungry but try to eat slowly." He instructed; his voice still as soft as when he talked to me in the bathroom.
I honestly ignored him, wanting to devour the food in front of me. I felt feral, gobbling down everything I could catch; beef, vegetables... anything really, I just wanted to be so stuffed, it would compensate the days I was starved.
I looked up at Yaga, and for a moment I saw a small smile appearing on his face. I felt embarrassed, having him watching me eat, so I slowly pushed the chair next to mine, asking him silently to sit. He was quick to understand, sitting next to me. I gave him some chopsticks, and I resumed to eat.
I could see him looking at the chopsticks in his hand, and it took him a while to join me in eating. "What's your name?" He asked, still looking at his palm.
I stopped eating abruptly. Yes, the people who kidnapped and tortured me didn't know my name. "Fujiwara, Yui." I replied, with a whisper.
"Yui. It's a pretty name." Yaga replied, trying to make small conversation, which irritated me.
"My father gave me that name to curse me to live alone forever." I dryly said, not taking my eyes from the food.
An awkward silence filled the room. I heard him clear his throat, his head moving slowly as he looked around the room, probably trying to come up with something to still talk to me. I continued to stuff my mouth with food, trying to swallow my irritation away.
I was startled by a small, scrapping sound in front of me. I looked at the table and saw Yaga pushing a water bottle in my way. "Why are you doing this?" I asked angrily.
He stayed silent for a while. He took a deep breath and started to speak. "I'm sorry for not helping you when-" "You said that already." I cut him off, grabbing the water bottle from his hand, taking a long swing. "Well, yes... Listen, I know you're upset-" I scoffed, shaking my head. "Upset?" My voice was filled with hatred. "I asked you to help me and you left me to die and be tortured." I whispered, my voice cracking almost instantly.
"I didn't know they were going to torture you." He justified himself, as if it would make things better.
I went back to eating silently, ignoring his presence. I was regretting inviting him to sit down and eat with me. I should have asked him to leave me alone, but I wanted to understand where I was, and what would happen to me.
"What is this place?" My voice was muffled by the amount of food in my mouth.
"It's a dormitory." I glared at him, pissed at his reply. "Oh. This is Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College."
"Tokyo? I'm from Nara..." I was confused.
"I know."
"Then why am I here, in Tokyo?" I was starting to lose my patience with how vague he was being. "I was being homeschooled to join Kyoto Jujutsu High next year."
"Why were you being homeschooled?"
"Because I was too wea- Why does it matter? The question here is, why am I in Tokyo, away from my home?" I snaped at him.
Yaga sighed. "Because you weren't supposed to be enrolled in the school. You were supposed to be executed, and since Kyoto High doesn't have... the required conditions to take care of your situation, you had to be transferred here."
It felt like I had been slapped. Of course. My life wasn't supposed to continue. I wanted to throw up. I pushed my plate away from me, looking at my hands.
"How old are you?" Another question, good lord...
"Why do you want to know?" I looked at him, and I sighed when I saw his serious gaze on me. "Fourteen."
"You sound more mature."
"That's a creepy thing to say." I point out, giving him a weirded-out glance.
His expression turned into a comical scowl. "That's not what I meant."
"That's how it conveyed." I shrugged.
"Fourteen-year-olds don't use words like 'convey'." He bit back.
"I read."
I heard him huff with frustration and I had to suppress a cheeky smile. Although I felt angry by having him suddenly so... helpful, it was funny to see this overly tall man, that looked like he would punch everyone who would look at him the wrong way, frustrated by a teenager.
Yaga crossed his arms, grumbling and probably cursing me out under his breath. I let out a 'pfft', covering my mouth with my hand. It felt oddly comforting, to sit down, have a good meal and feeling relaxed, after what happened. He looked at me, with a shocked expression in his face, his body relaxing after my soft chuckle.
"What happened to you?" His voice was serious.
"What kind of question is that, you know what happened." I replied, confused.
"I mean... before that day."
"Oh." Was the only thing I said for a while, contemplating if I should just be honest or if it was best to sugar coat things.
I let out a sigh, but ultimately, I had enough courage to speak. "My mother died while giving birth to me. I guess that made my father resent me, so I was never really loved or cared for. My first memory is of him beating me up because I asked if I could go outside to play." I saw Yaga's face cringing while he was listening to me. "It was always like that. He would tell me how useless I was, call me weak and wicked, beat me up after and then I'd be locked inside my room until the next day. Until..." my voice started to fade away.
My eyes were glued to my hands on my lap, and I bit my lip harshly when I started to feel the tears rolling down my cheeks. I tried to clean my face with my sleeves, but the tears kept coming back. I felt Yaga's hand on top of my head, and I chocked on a sob when I felt him pat me, gently. It was awkward but, at the same time, kind. Awkward because I didn't like crying in front of people, and kind because I understood that he wanted to comfort me in some way.
"You're a strong girl." He said, continuing to pat my head.
My eyes went wide with surprise, and as soon as my mind registered his words, my eyes filled with tears, and I couldn't hold it in anymore. I let out a loud sob, and I hid my face into my hands, trying to muffle my cries. Yaga's hand never left the top of my head, and he stayed silent, patiently waiting for me to calm myself down.
I couldn't understand why I was crying. Was it all of the emotions finally making me break? Or was the sudden realization that someone could offer me kindness? It left a bitter taste in my mouth, so strange and unfamiliar yet so comforting and refreshing at the same time. I allowed myself to cry it out, cleanse my soul while I had Yaga's silent support. I was thankful.

*Yomi-no-Kuni or "The Shadowy Land of the Dead" is a shadowy underworld realm that is described in Japanese mythology as a place of darkness, gloom and fear. According to legends, it is a place devoid of sunlight and is filled with demons, monsters and the spirits of the deceased. It is said to be a place where the souls of the dead wander for eternity, lost and alone in a world of darkness and despair.

Obs: Hello! I'm just here to explain the domain expansion a little bit, without spoiling much. I thought about putting the phrase in Japanese (yes, I watch the anime in sub) but then I thought it was best to translate it. So the og phrase would be Ryōiki Tenkai: Yomi-no-kuni, I wanted to share that since I keep imagining someone saying it in a badass voice. I'll leave a link below of a picture I found on Deviantart that shows how I envision it. (sammirose-and-dmitri/art/Yomi-no-kuni-World-of-Darkness-480977450) I hope everyone enjoyed this first chapter, let me know if you guys have any questions or suggestions for the story. Thank you so much for reading it!