Chapter Text
She was sure she’d been down this road before. The multiple sets of hands, the macabre faces passed from one group to the other, until she eventually ended up here.
It must have been a year of this, ever since those people left and she was handed to the foster care system, nothing in her life had stood still. Her red hair had grown slightly longer than she would have liked but I guess that’s not the priority right now.
From the little information she had been given she knew she was being sent abroad. She’d never left the country before so that was nice. Always surrounded by a group of people in suits who never said anything other than the bare minimum to instruct her where to sit, what to eat. None of them asked her anything else. How boring.
-
To say Satoru was less than pleased would be an understatement.
“What the hell are you talking about?” This kind of thing was why he hated returning to his clan during the rare breaks he would get in between semesters at Jujitsu High.
“This has already been organised, and she is on a flight here as we speak.” His aunt had made no face of difference, but her head bowed slightly, fully aware how out matched she had become since the six eyes had grown older.
“I don’t rightly care. This is not my problem. I’m not going to just marry some random brat you force my way.” The fist he had clutched began to shake in anger at the audacity of this situation.
“Satoru-sama, this is a unique situation,” As pensive as the older woman was to broach this topic, she knew the young man in question would be pliable to agreement once certain clarifications were met. “This girl has a particular gift, left unchecked she could rival even you. She has no clan, no affiliation. No one to guide her onto the right path of a Jujitsu Sorcerer. The elders call for execution if these terms are not met.”
Satoru’s jaw clenched, damn that old hag. He hated being forced into a corner, this was exactly what was happening. He knew better than what his aunt let on, she nor any of the elders gave so much of a damn weather or not the girl had to die. They just wanted to be able to use her, like they used him. Placing her firmly under his thumb, would mean they gained access to whatever power she had. All because he was under theirs. For now.
“What’s so special about her then?”
-
The people were loud, and the sky was bright. When she was eventually ushered off the airplane she was surrounded by a body of suits. She could hear the chatter of people around her, a language she couldn’t understand. It was disorientating to say the least, swallowing down the bubble of fear she had in her throat she contemplated how screwed she was. Hardly given any information, other than being told she was being sent abroad. Things had moved quickly after the incidents of the last year. Her head hurt. She somehow ended up missing her home. The one that was only half realised anyway.
She’d been placed inside a black window tinted car. Nothing said to her, yet again.
The view was nice at least. Lush greenery, a blue sky with pure white clouds above. She’d never seen anything quite so untouched before. The few building that did scatter certain parts of the scenery didn’t impose themselves into the natural environment, simply co-existed alongside it, like they were always meant to be there.
“Excuse me,” speaking felt foreign, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d used her voice, the sound seemed to startle the driver and his companion too as they jolted to the sound. “Can I open the window?”
She dared to ask, feeling a nauseating feeling creep up her stomach.
They had looked at each other briefly before shaking their heads.
“No,” The one not driving had replied but looked uncertain of himself and his accent was thick. She started to turn green.
Great. The turns of the car down country roads rocked her even more. She started to clutch her stomach groaning as they continued. It was when a particular sharp turn, that caused her to retch, bodyguard number 1 decided to turn around. Eyes growing wide at the sight of the girl struggling to not unleash hell onthe backseat as if he finally understood what she was asking for earlier.
Panicking, he shouted to his buddy driving, something that she couldn’t understand. The other shouted something, but continuing down the road anyway. The two bickered as the initial man who became aware of her suffering, rustled around the glove box till he thrust a plastic bag into her hands looking at her apologetically.
“Sorry,”
-
After an hour of misery, she had noticed they were finally pulling up to large iron gates. Through a residential area and up to a large building where a large group of formal looking people waited for them.
Brilliant. She thought, the sickness starting to subside, but she felt the tolls of journey on her weary body. Perfect time to meet strangers.
Both men quickly got out of the car, but kept the door to her side child locked as she had tried to get out with them. She watched them approach an older woman, whispering something to her as she eyed the car, glancing over.
With an elegant turn, it seemed as though she dismissed the other people there with polite smile. As the group disbanded, the lady started to approach the car. One of the men opened the door to reveal the dishevelled looking girl inside.
She watched as the older lady bowed her head down slightly to look at her, the corners of her eyes creased as she smiled closed eyed at the young girl.
“Hello, Frida-chan.”
-
This lady was strange. She’d never had a grandmother before and she supposed that was what she trying to emulate, Frida didn’t know how she was supposed to approach this woman. So, she took to a default reaction of only speaking when spoken to. Head down, as she held a strange tea, she knelt on the matted floor, across from the woman at the other side of the table.
“This must be a very confusing time for you,” She reasoned taking a sip pleasantly from her cup. Still, it was nice to be able to have a conversation with someone.
“I don’t understand why I am here,” She had managed the first full sentence to this woman. The lady had simply placed her teacup down and looked at the girl properly for the first time since she had sat down.
“You are aware of your difference to other children your age, yes?”
Ah, Frida thought, that.
That night was a dark splotched memory, she’d thought that she was the only one that could see the goblins. When others had shown up, proving otherwise, and with the earlier events of the week she had panicked. She hadn’t really understood what had happened other than a feeling of wrongness, like a parasite had invaded her soul but instead of feeding off her, she was feeding of it. Things had moved quickly after that. She’d been kept in a room covered in scrolls for a few weeks, before being taken to another location, then another, till finally she was on a plane hurtling to wherever she found herself now. Far away from any comfort she had left in her hometown. As well as being thoroughly, thoroughly confused.
“Well, I don’t really understand that either.” She had admitted her head down as she looked at her own hands. Drained faces and two lifeless bodies invaded her vision, briefly.
The old lady sighed and shook her head.
“I’m going to be as honest as I can be with you right now,” She pursed her lips looking at the young girl. “You are to be kept under constant surveillance from this point on indefinitely,”
Frida’s eyes, that once were cast down, looked up widely.
“Why?” She’d managed to whisper, a cold hand of reality pressing on her throat.
“Because you have a very dangerous cursed technique,” She had started but one look at the young girl had her pause. “This will be explained to you with time, more importantly- you will be under the soul authority of the six eyes wielder of our clan.” She paused before continuing again.
“Try not to think of this as a punishment, rather you have been given a fortunate opportunity.” She was staring into the girls soul now.
Frida choked back a laugh.
“I don’t understand.” She had pointed out, rather defeatedly. Too much information given to a girl as young as she was.
The older woman considered her for second before speaking.
“There are energies out there bigger than you can understand. Right now, you find yourself in a unique situation. You are dangerous to our way of life. There are people above even me that are calling for your immediate execution.”
The words took the breath from her lungs. Execution. In her young mind, she thought it’s probably what she deserved. She had killed two people. Unintentional or otherwise, no God, Just and Benevolent, would be able to forgive such a crime. She carried the greatest sin at just eleven years old.
“However, we don’t believe that is necessary. You have a very strong gift, but our clan houses an individual with two greater ones, the six eyes and the limitless technique. Under his, protection, you have the potential to be incredibly useful to the jujitsu world.”
The woman took another sip of her tea gauging a reaction from the child. The girl just sat there. Head down. Contemplating.
“What happens to me now?” she asked eyes trained on the floor.
“There are these things called binding vows.” She began “You are to make one with him in order to avoid your execution. You will give soul rights over the use of your technique to Satoru Gojo, you will not use your technique unless given clear permission from Satoru Gojo.”
“So, a promise?” Frida asked glancing at the older woman. She smiled at her again, with that fake warmth that Frida was beginning to despise her for.
“Essentially, however,” the woman contemplated how to phrase the next part of her sentence. “This vow is made using your cursed energy, you will do this in person. If you break this vow, Satoru Gojo will be forced to kill you as well as anyone who carries your blood.”
Frida looked at the woman heart elevating. If she broke the vow, she would die. If she broke the vow anyone who carried any trace of relation to her would die. She didn’t even know all the members of her family. That could be hundreds of people, that could be babies, infants, that would be the people she still knows and loves. A tree like map appeared in her mind, the vines grew larger and larger, more branches appeared. All those people would die, their blood would run over her soul, the weight of it would never recover. In death she would be forever damned, more so than she already is. She would never be redeemed.
“But I can’t control it. I didn’t mean to the first time. It just happens, what if i… what if I do it by accident all those people will die because of me… I can’t.” With all the emotional strength of an eleven-year-old she burst out crying, her heartbeat faster than she was able to draw breath, she was having a panic attack. “Just execute me, please it will be easier.” She was sobbing at this point, hands over eyes. The older woman drew a face similar to disgust at the display whilst she couldn’t see.
“Now, now. Stop that.” She had tried to come across as caring, the woman lacked the emotional capacity to be sincere about it. “Let me finish talking, you are being impolite.”
Fridas head whipped up, breath stilling. In a way, she was already used to her tears being ignored, so she wasn’t shocked so much by the lack of empathy. She was a murderer after all. That accusation behind the older lady’s voice did take her by surprise.
“The vow will make it, so you are unable to unconsciously activate your technique without permission from Satoru-sama. The vow will only break if you consciously make the choice to. In a way, this will help you to control your gift better as well, no more accidents like in England.” The old lady continued. Frida began to calm down at the thought. She wouldn’t have to continue always feeling like a nuclear bomb, like she had for the last year. It caused a thought in her head.
“Ms Gojo,” she started, unsure how else to refer to the woman as when she had introduced herself, she hadn’t remembered what her first name was. “Do you think. I can be redeemed?” she had asked in a voice so small, like she feared bringing her turmoil into fruition would solidify her damnation.
The woman paused again, looking at Frida properly. Such a small girl. Scrawny, scared and pitiful. Upon the eyes there wasn’t much to be impressed with. Short wavey red hair, the colour of crimson. Ginger freckles dusting her face, crooked teeth that she would have to ensure got fixed in the next year. Had the circumstances been different, the woman would have rejected the proposition that this girl was to marry her nephew, the pride of the Gojo clan. A badly bred, foreign, unremarkable child.
The circumstances, however, were different. She had been gifted with an extremely rare technique. One that was believed to have gone extinct with its clan hundreds of years ago. The girl’s genetic profile was uncertain. Mostly English, but there was a trace of Japanese blood there. That’s all the records that could be shown. She didn’t even have a birth certificate as far as they were aware. Her family history was practically non-existent. For all intents and purposes, this girl, did not exist.
And yet here she was. Sat across from the woman, red eyes, a scared eleven-year-old girl. No family, no voice, just an extinct, powerful technique, gifted to her by the sheer determination of her DNA to not disappear. That’s why she was here, no other reason than the pure gluttony of the Gojo clan, to claim a cursed technique that was supposedly lost to time. To mix it with their own powerful six eyes and limitless technique. Frida was a ripe apple fit for the taking, from a tree which nobody owned anymore. But she was just a girl child. A traumatised one, an opportunity. The happenstance that Satoru Gojo belonged to them, when this girl became known the way she did, was fate itself providing the golden chariot. Yes, it was a perfect opportunity to create heirs for the Gojo clan.
She would not be told yet though. She needed to become reliant on the clan, on Satoru-sama. She needed to know and understand that there was no future for her outside of her bond with Satoru Gojo. She was already primed and vulnerable. She was a perfect little disaster.
“I believe, that if you are a good, obedient girl. You will be able to give back to the world more than you have taken.” The old woman gestured to one of the men standing at the side of the room saying something to him in Japanese that of course the girl couldn’t understand, he nodded, bowed and left the room upon instruction.
“There is another term for you to agree to, that is if you want the opportunity for redemption?”