A Young Girl's Ten Shadows

By Special FX and Icura

~o~

Chapter 1: The Ten Shadows

~o~

This was her third life, but everything about this was actually very familiar to her. When her hearing had developed, she had recognized the language. It was Japanese, and she could understand what they were saying. Carried around as she was by her mother or placed in either of the two cradles around the house, the small tidbits of information here and there slowly formed the basis of her knowledge. By the time the blurriness finally faded from her growing sight, she was already sure of where she was, but what she saw confirmed it.

The furniture in the rooms were relatively new, not luxurious, but they were of a style that she was familiar with. During the heated days, the cries of the insects outside the window—the swarms of higurashis—brought up memories that had been long forgotten of summer vacations and trips out into a rural village. The television—small and boxy—had a sound quality that was more static than voices, but the words of the comedians or newscasters that flowed out gave her an idea of the place she had been reincarnated into.

It was certainly Japan, but she was in a rural village in 1990, according to the newscasters who gave news about the nearby city. That was actually the very same year that she had previously been born in for her first life.

Her father this time was of Japanese descent—black of hair and with a dull smile that had trouble reaching his eyes—but her mother was distinctively western with her long, flowing blonde hair and sky blue eyes. Essentially, she was half Japanese and half…German? Russian? It was hard to tell since her mother never spoke anything other than Japanese.

Still, that was probably why, despite being in Japan, she had been given the name of Tanya Degurechaff once more, despite it being foreign to this country. It was a twist of irony that made her wonder if she looked the same—and if anything else carried over with her.

However, her memories at the end of her second life were light in detail, and the fragments frequently evaded her despite the time and effort she spent while lying in the cradle. It was like grabbing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but the moment that she reached for more, the ones she had would slip through her grasp. It was hazy, but she could recall being sent on a high-risk mission along with the familiar sounds of gunfire and shrapnel flying past her. While dumping rounds of formulas onto enemy positions, there had been a bright flash of light.

Had she simply been blasted out of the sky or plummeted to her death?

Tanya wasn't sure. The only thing she could recall after that bright flash of light was her slowly opening her eyes to an incredibly blurry ceiling. It was jarring how fast that transition was, though it was possible she had simply lost the memory of what happened in between lives. She wouldn't put it past Being X to do something like that after mocking her.

She supposed that it didn't really matter how it ended. Her biggest enemy in this world wasn't enemy soldiers trying to take her life, but boredom and limited motion due to infancy. It took some time, but she eventually figured out that her parents owned a bakery downstairs, and they each took turns switching between watching her and working.

Living through her infant years was not something new to her, though this was admittingly far more comfortable than the experience of the orphanage where only a limited number of caretakers had to take charge over numerous babies and children. In spite of that, it didn't change how harrowing these formative years could be. There was nothing that she could do except eat, sleep, and watch the days go by.

Slowly—agonizingly—those days became months that soon turned into years.

Tanya had already started reading by the time she had turned two. She did not mind being viewed as a child prodigy by her parents so she didn't bother trying to hide her intelligence. There was no reason to hinder herself from taking advantage of her previous life's knowledge to create a headstart. After all, enrolling early into school would only prove beneficial for her future career.

Her parents bought her more and more advanced books, eventually delving into costly textbooks when those proved insufficient for her needs. Despite her expectations, in the three years since she was born into this life, they had never once brought her before a specialist nor did she start school early. Eventually, she stopped asking them to buy more textbooks, seeing how much of a financial burden it was starting to become.

It would have been easier to look up information on the internet, but in this time period, the World Wide Web had barely started commercialization in the big cities. Besides that, there was no point in getting an expensive dial-up connection when the extensive databases of free knowledge didn't currently exist as of yet. That meant that getting a personal computer was a useless endeavor as well.

These were the years when the market bubble crashed anyway.

Since she lived in a rural village, it thankfully didn't affect her quality of life as much, but the implications were wide-reaching. Still, it wasn't like she could take advantage of it. All the information she could get was in the newspapers or on television. Without being in a major city like Tokyo—not to mention being older—there really wasn't much she could do. Getting her parents to do it for her while using their money wasn't exactly ideal either. Instead, with nothing much to do, she spent much of her time helping out her parents where she could when she wasn't studying to refresh her memory.

It was when she turned five years old that she realized something was off.

Flickers at the edge of her vision. Hallucinations where there shouldn't be. Monsters from folklore, appearing and standing about. Lazily, lethargically, as if they were statues slightly swaying in the wind. However, after a blink, they would disappear.

But then it took two blinks. After a while, three, and eventually, they became permanent fixtures in her vision.

A child would have already run to their parents, screaming about the monsters that only they could see. However, as a person of logic and reason, Tanya knew that it wouldn't amount to anything. Most parents would just wave it off as a child's overactive imagination. She could self-diagnose and treat her own hallucinations.

The problem was that these weren't hallucinations—or if they were, her own mind was possibly failing at this point. That was because she could touch them. They didn't react, but the texture under her fingers was something that couldn't be faked, not unless she had really gone insane.

A doctor? A psychiatrist? Both were costly prospects, and that wouldn't even account for the alienation she would receive from her parents and possibly the entire village. Was it even necessary? Maybe, with the growth of her brain, they would eventually fade away.

With that thought, Tanya decided to firmly ignore them.

Since it was a rural village in the middle of nowhere, there weren't any changes to her daily life even with her new resolution. Life simply carried on, as slow and trodding as it was.

Unfortunately, in spite of how many times she had demonstrated her intelligence to her parents—whether it be by reading through the books they bought her or solving the advanced math problems they gave her—her mother still insisted that she attend nursery school. 'You need to make some friends your age, Tanya,' her mother had said, and since she was still merely a child of five years, she did not really have much of a choice in the matter despite her complaints.

That was how Tanya Degurechaff found herself standing outside in a playground that belonged to some random preschool in the village. It was recess time so all the children were running about and jumping around like monkeys. There was no point for her to do such; she had kept up with her fitness, though she tailored her exercise regime to her age so as not to stunt her growth. It was pointless to do more. Therefore, she was left with little to do. She could have taken a book out of the classroom, but they were all children's books, and those didn't interest her in the slightest.

Tanya simply let out a bored sigh as she sat down on a nearby bench and counted the seconds ticking by.

She really hoped that her mother wouldn't insist on having her attend a nursery school for much longer. In fact, she was hoping that she could get onto an accelerated learning path and graduate university early. It was difficult to achieve in the Japanese school system since it was known to hinder accelerated progress, especially in this time period, but she was confident that she would be able to succeed. Maybe she should talk with her parents directly about it?

After all, she didn't think her sanity would be able to remain intact from having to go through the entire education route.

Her eyes almost glazed over as she waited for the minutes to pass by, watching the other kids running around the playground. Over by the sand playpen, she noticed one of those strange monsters. It looked like a child-sized snake with leopard patterns and stubby wings, slithering around in the sand. As she continued to watch the strange monster, a boy eventually approached the playpen.

Tanya raised an eyebrow as she saw the boy step into the playpen and stand directly over the snake, staring at it.

Huh. Was it just a coincidence? Or was he also able to see it?

That moment abruptly ended when the snake suddenly opened its mouth impossibly wide—double what should be possible—and swallowed the child whole, before diving into the sand and disappearing from sight. The entire sequence took only seconds, but all that was left was the sands of the playpen with no witnesses except for her.

~o~

What she saw was not something that anyone could easily believe. Even if she were to say something, it would just be put down as a child's fantasy. Worse, she would be placed as a potential witness and subject to multiple interrogations to find out what she "really" saw. Of course, even if they believed her, what could they do? Hire a shrine priestess?

In the end, the teacher and the boy's parents were frantic when he couldn't be found at school. A search party was made, but they couldn't find anything in town or the nearby areas.

It took two weeks before a single part of the boy's decomposing body could be found, several kilometers away in the mountains. His head.

Word of the autopsy report circulated around the village, saying that the boy had been dragged off, mauled, and devoured by wild animals. School was suspended while a higher fence was being erected to keep out dangerous animals while hunters were dispatched to cull the local animal population.

However, none of that was a comfort to her. This incident confirmed the worst case scenario. Those monsters weren't hallucinations; they were very real. More than that, they were dangerous.

However…

"Fear is the product of a lack of knowledge." To rectify that, research was necessary. Still, being put into this situation grated on her. Tanya slammed her fist down on her table in frustration. "Damn Being X! War wasn't enough?! Now, you're trying to use the supernatural to produce followers?!"

There was the sound of rapid footsteps before her door was unceremoniously flung open.

"Tanya, did you fall down?!"

"Uh, no, sorry, mom," Tanya murmured, caught off-guard. Realizing what kind of body language she was portraying, she quickly rectified her posture and tone to a more normal and confident one. "I was just angry at something I read."

"Really now?" The blonde-haired woman in the prime of her life sighed audibly, shaking the bakery apron she was wearing. "You made me leave poor Nakahashi-san waiting at the counter."

"Actually, mom, can I ask you something?" Without waiting for her to answer, Tanya continued. "Did we have a famous ancestor? Like royalty, a politician, a mystic, or an oil baron?"

"An oil baron?" She stared at Tanya with a raised eyebrow and a tilted head. "Why an oil baron?"

"Please answer the question. This is serious." To emphasize her point, Tanya put her hands in front of her and stared somberly at her.

"Maybe…? Not from my side of the family though." Her mother thought about it for a moment, but she eventually shook her head. "We can ask your father when he gets home."

"He's gone again? He's been coming home late recently, and now he's leaving you to work the store alone?"

"Did you forget? A friend of his is here on business so he's showing him around," her mother replied with a chastising smile. "They never see each other so why don't we let him have his fun, okay, my dear?"

"Oh, right." Truth be told, Tanya couldn't even remember being told that, but to be fair, her mind had been heavily occupied with her own survival lately. "I'm going to go to the store to pick up a few things for dinner."

"Okay, but stay in the village."

"I will."

"Remember, don't go near the outskirts."

"I won't."

"Oh, and can you pick up some eggs while you're there?" her mother added as an afterthought. "We're running low."

"Alright."

~o~

One of the benefits of living in a small rural village was that everybody knew each other. Because of that fact, there was hardly ever any crime, so even young children like herself were allowed to walk around the village unsupervised. The only real danger in the village was from those invisible monsters, but fortunately, they were not very common. Although, that also made it difficult to conduct field research on them.

The walk to the local supermarket did not take very long. Her house was only a couple of blocks away. As she made her way down the street, she kept her eyes peeled for any sighting of those creatures.

Finding one of them was imperative since she needed more information on them. However, since she now knew that they could be dangerous, she made sure to hide a kitchen knife in the inside pocket of her jacket. It did poke a hole in the bottom of the pocket, but that was a sacrifice she was willing to make. Not to mention, it held onto the blade better. While close quarters combat was never her forte in the army, she still knew how to handle a knife at an adequate enough level, even if this one was a bit unwieldy.

If the kitchen knife was not enough to deter one should they become violent, she was prepared to run. Since the supermarket was an area with a good number of people, it wouldn't be difficult to disappear into the crowd or use someone else as an obstacle. Most people weren't able to see those creatures, so they were probably safe. After all, that boy clearly looked at the snake monster before it gobbled him up.

As she stepped inside the supermarket, the cashier manning the register greeted her with a smile. She responded back with a distracted wave.

Her mother was a regular here, and she would occasionally tag along with her, so everyone who worked here was already familiar with her. The insides of the supermarket bustled with the hum of fluorescent lights and the distant chatter of shoppers navigating the aisles. The smell of fresh produce mixed with the sterile scent of cleaning supplies created a familiar smell that could only be found in such a place.

As she casually meandered her way through the labyrinth of shelves, an odd feeling drew her attention. Without really understanding why, she began walking toward the canned goods aisle. Her gaze became fixated on a certain towering shelf, where the labels of various products formed a mosaic of colors and shapes. It was there that a subtle rustling sound, almost imperceptible, emanated from the shadows looming between the towering stacks of cans.

Tanya narrowed her eyes as her fingers nestled around the handle of the kitchen knife hidden within her jacket.

The rustling grew louder, taking on a distinct rhythm. It wasn't the product of random store sounds; it was deliberate, purposeful. The air seemed to almost thicken with an inexplicable tension. Between the cans, Tanya caught a glimpse of movement. Just as suddenly, a singular eye—glowing with an eerie luminescence—emerged from the darkness.

The eye was pitch black, highlighted by blood red irises. They locked onto her own eyes, and the air became charged with an uncanny chill. The creature, a blend of shadows and monstrous tentacles, revealed itself—an enigmatic being with tendrils that danced like wisps of smoke. For a moment, they held each other's gaze, neither side willing to move.

This was the first time one of those creatures had actually noticed her presence.

They truly did seem to come in all shapes and sizes; regular anatomy seemed to not apply to them. It was able to recognize her existence as well. All the previous creatures she had seen never seemed to acknowledge her. Now, the real question was: what caused these creatures to turn violent? The image of the snake creature in the sand playpen was still fresh in her mind.

Then, as if respecting some kind of unspoken agreement, the creature retreated back into the tower of cans, disappearing into the shadows and leaving Tanya standing there alone.

While she was tempted to find the creature again to examine it some more, she didn't want to move all the items aside or stick her hand into the shadows. More than anything, this one wasn't as statuesque or as docile as the ones she was used to seeing. It noticed her, and that made her feel wary.

Leaving the aisle behind, she made her way to the frozen foods section instead since she still needed to grab some eggs for her mother. After grabbing a carton of eggs and paying for them at the register, she made her way out of the supermarket.

The sun was setting beyond the mountains by this time, though there was still plenty of light to see. It was odd, but she hadn't seen any of those wayward monsters that she used to occasionally see on the way back. It was almost unsettling, in a way. Walking down the small road, the few sparse street lamps began to light up, despite there still being enough of the red glow of twilight to see where she was going.

When Tanya was about to walk by an alleyway, a sudden shiver ran down her spine.

Most would have frozen up in fear, but her training and experience made her turn to face it while taking a step back. The darkness of the alleyway loomed out as if pulsing to the rapid beats of her heart. The knife she had hidden on her was already in her hand, held in a familiar stance that felt unfamiliar in this body.

Breathing in and out evenly, keeping her eyes on the alleyway, she began taking steps back and to the side, circling around the entrance to the alleyway. If there was somebody around, she would already have screamed for help, but it was empty. Worse, it felt like if she did scream, whatever was in there would immediately emerge from the darkness in response. In fact, the sensation flooding over her was getting worse, despite the fact that she had already moved a good distance away from the alleyway entrance.

"Oh, Tanya-chan! What are you doing out so late?"

Tanya's eyes widened when she saw the old man in his late sixties walking on the path that she had come from. So caught up with the dangerous feeling in her mind, she hadn't even noticed him coming, not until he was right at the entrance to the alleyway where she had been a moment ago.

"Wait, Nakahas—!"

The head of a massive snake suddenly snapped out of the alleyway, its jaw closing in on the older man's torso in a burst of speed. Nakahashi's head popped off, blood geysering from his neck. The rest of the man's body was dragged into the creature's mouth and disappeared in a single gulp, just before it turned its eyes toward her.

The leopard patterns on its skin were recognizable, but the snake was almost double the size it was before, dwarfing the stubby wings on its backside by multitudes. Unlike a regular snake, there were several rows of serrated teeth instead of just fangs, many of which were stained with blood and shreds of cloth. Faced with the monster in front of her, armed with only a kitchen knife, there was only one thing on her mind.

Run.

Throwing the bag of groceries at the monster, Tanya turned around and ran with all her might. Her heart felt like it was running a kilometer a minute, but there was no mistaking it. She saw it eat someone whole. Not just a small child this time, but a fully grown adult. Could she even fight something like that?!

She risked a glance behind her.

Why was it chasing her?!

More than that, it was catching up to her. In its rampage, the snake was slithering on the road, shattering any obstacles in its way and knocking aside even the street lamps. A quick estimation in her head told her that there was no way she could outrun it with her short legs. It was simply too fast.

On the dot, Tanya switched from flight to fight, slamming her foot onto the ground to stop her momentum. Spinning around brought her face to face with it, the snake having gotten closer far faster than she anticipated. She could smell its rancid breath as its spear-like forked tongue shot out of the monster's mouth. Moving her head to the side, a reflex engrained from her training, felt like it took an eternity—and it was still not enough.

One of the forked prongs of the tongue ripped through the surface flesh of her cheek in that near-miss. She brought up her glowing knife and stabbed it into the fleshy underside of the tongue, spilling purple blood onto her hand. The tongue retracted at blisteringly fast speed, pulling the knife as well as her thumb along with it, back into its mouth.

It took a moment for Tanya to even realize it. The shock and pain struck at the same time, tears coming unbidden to her eyes. It blurred her vision for a moment that was too critical for her sight to be obscured.

However, it was already too late.

The snake's jaw was already open wide in front of her.

Death.

What a short life this was.

This wasn't the first time she was experiencing it.

Still, she didn't want to die.

How horrific.

Was this going to hurt?

She didn't want to die.

Would there be a fourth life or would it all finally end?

She didn't want to die.

Dying to a bullet was one thing, but getting eaten and torn to pieces?

She didn't want to die.

It smelled so bad.

She didn't want to die.

This wasn't so bad.

She didn't want to die.

In spite of thoughts, her hands suddenly moved in front of herself, even futile as it was. Her index fingers touched each other, even futile as it was. Something surged within her, even futile as it was.

But even in futility, she had never and would never give in.

The snake's gaping mouth covered her, shrouding her in darkness. However, her hands glowed—illuminated—as her fingers instinctively formed the sign of the cross.

And something from within the shadows responded.

A spear of pure white with a crystal blade shot out from her shadow, stabbing through the roof of the snake's mouth and into its brain. There was no resistance—no defense—against the spear's sharp entry. And just like that, the snake itself began to unravel.

What came out of the shadows first were slender white hands that kept their hold on the shaft of the spear, followed by the rest of its body. With alabaster feathery wings and a glowing halo, the angel robed in white, with milky skin to match, floated up before her.

With the crumbling monster in the backdrop, the being of white—whose name was already imprinted on her mind—retracted its spear and turned to look at her, even as the pure white feathery wings unfolded from its backs to its fullest extent.

Seraphim.

Despite its androgynous face, there was no questioning that he was male from the open frontal slit in his robe that revealed a chiseled chest. On that slender body, muscles that were statuesque in appearance were perfectly and inhumanly distributed across it. The silvery pupils, stationed within a sea of ivory, soon turned from her to something that was beyond her.

The sounds of nearby approaching footsteps caught her attention. Turning her head toward the direction of the noise, she found herself staring at her father and an older man in a white kimono.

"Tanya…" her father trailed off, shock evident on his face.

"So, she has awakened her innate cursed technique," the other man simply said, glancing at the discarded knife in the pile of blood and gore, the leftover remnants after the snake dissipated. Of course, her thumb was probably somewhere in that pile too. "And she's already able to subconsciously imbue objects with her cursed energy, I see."

Innate cursed technique? Cursed energy? None of those words meant anything to her, but that man clearly knew what he was talking about. It seemed that father had been hiding more things than she had initially thought. Was he also able to see those monsters too?

The older man casually walked over toward her. He spared a brief moment to glance at Seraphim before he knelt down next to her until they were both at eye-level.

"Tell me, girl, what is the name of your technique?"

For some reason, Tanya already instinctively knew the name of the ability that had allowed her to summon Seraphim.

"The Ten Shadows."

The look on her father and the older man's faces made her question if she should have answered that man's inquiry at all.

~o~

Takashi Degurechaff lit up a cigarette as he stared at the gray clouds in the sky, at a loss.

His last name had originally been Zenin, but he had taken on his wife's last name when he had left the clan to marry her, against his relatives' wishes. Still, the past always had a way of pulling someone back in. He had never expected his daughter to be able to see curses, must less have an innate technique. The foreign half of her bloodline should have made that impossible, but there could have been mystics, shamans, witches, or even priests far back in his wife's ancestry.

After all, she did summon an angel so maybe even a saint was possible.

Still, Tanya had never talked to them about seeing curses before. It would have been normal—expected even—for a child to ask about the strange monsters floating around, right?

It was amazing how wrong he had been.

Why was it that the one day the Zenin clan sent a sorcerer to take care of the rising number of curses in the area would be the same day that his daughter discovered her cursed technique? Was he just that unfortunate?

No, he supposed that it didn't matter in the end.

Even if Chojuro Zenin had not shown up to the village and seen Tanya's cursed technique, it was only a matter of time before the clan would find out. To think that his daughter, who wasn't even a full-blooded Zenin, inherited the clan's prized Ten Shadows technique, and an abnormal one at that. The normal Ten Shadows technique always came with a pair of shikigami known as the Divine Dogs, but Tanya's was different.

It was an angel.

He did not know what that meant for Tanya's jujutsu, but for what it meant for her future? That much was obvious.

The clan would not pass up the opportunity to obtain a Ten Shadows user, no matter how abnormal it was or the fact that she had foreign blood in her. Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to have to give up his daughter to the clan. Sure, they would try to do things 'civilly' at first, such as by offering compensation, but he knew that, in the end, they were not above using force. He had once participated in such tactics himself under the clan's orders.

Takashi was not delusional enough to think that he could stop the clan from taking his daughter away by force. He was just a washed-up mediocre jujutsu sorcerer. It left a bitter taste on his tongue, but there was no avoiding fate. He just hoped that his wife would not hate him for it—or at least, one day come to understand.

So when Naobito Zenin himself showed up on his doorstep with an offer of one billion yen for Tanya, how could he refuse?

~o~

Authors' Notes:

Special FX: I've been wanting to write a JJK story for a while now, and Icura just recently finished the show, so it was good timing for another collab.

Icura: Yeah, I mean, we do know that in Japan, it is the family name first, but it would be easier to keep the consistency in story so we decided to just use the western style of first and last name.