Blue Rose

As they walked, she looked over the boy she’d unfortunately accepted she was attached to. His face looked stuck in a permanently bored scowl, although she’d seen him with Shiu, so she knew he wasn’t totally emotionless. His hair was maybe medium length and straight. It was clear he didn’t keep up with it, though. He wore loose pants and a black compression shirt. To be honest, they looked a little worse for wear.

“You’re such a boy,” she blurts. A short gasp leaves her as she holds her hands in front of her mouth “I mean…”

Toji shoots her a side eye, “You just noticed?”

Mitsuko rolls her eyes, “Shut up, you know what I mean,” she huffs. “Your apartment is bare with empty beer cans as decorations, practically. Your clothes look like you haven’t washed them in weeks, and you… you…” her voice slowly tapers off “hey… how old are you?”

Toji didn’t react to what she said. He honestly knew all that about himself already. It wasn’t like he ran off to be some hero. He just wanted the damn Zenins off his back.

“Why?” he asked as they reached his apartment, unlocking it with the aloofness Mitsuko was still getting used to. 

“Did you run away from home?” she asks quickly, like the question burned her tongue. It wasn’t a nice thing to ask, or to be asked. She knew that and yet she couldn’t help but to check. “You seem young,” she adds.

Toji pauses on the handle for a second before continuing, as if nothing happened, taking off his shoes. 

“That place wasn’t my home,” Toji answers curtly.

Mitsuko didn’t ask any more questions. His tone said it all. She floated awkwardly in the doorway as awkwardness and guilt filled her.

“Nineteen,” he answers as he plops himself down onto his couch, flicking open his can of beer. 

“What?” she startles out of her haze.

“You asked how old I was earlier, I’m nineteen,” he casually adds as he takes a swig.

Her eyes widen slightly in relief and a little excitement at what feels like her first clear answer from him. “I’m seventeen,” she replies, finally entering the living room area.

“I know,” Toji mumbles as he gestures at the school uniform she’s wearing, or well, permanently wearing for however long she remains a… whatever she is.

The two let a serene quiet fill the air, both finally content: Mitsuko with her questions answered, and Toji with his beer. Mitsuko learned she was able to freely roam around Toji’s apartment, peeking her head into whatever cabinets or doors Toji left open. Every once in a while, she’d feel a tug on the tether, realizing it was Toji’s way of telling her not to look at something, so she’d explore something else.

“You shouldn’t be drinking that.” Mitsuko grimaces at the empty beer cans around the apartment.

“Playing nurse now?” Toji glances at her over his shoulder. 

“It’s illegal,” she shoots back with an annoyed look, “you’re underage.” A disgusted look takes over as she looks at his basically overflowing trash can. “How do you even buy this stuff?” I head over to him and sit on the ground.

Toji jerks his head to the window, “place across the street.”

“They don’t check?” Mitsuko asks, but then she looks over Toji once more. His intimidating aura and decent stature “never mind…” she mumbles. Toji just grunts in return. 

“Where’d you go to school?” Mitsuko asks

“This a job interview?” Toji grumbles, “Why so many questions?”

“I’m bored,” she complained, shooting him a glare. “I can’t touch anything,” she complained, waving her arms around. “I can’t call Aiko-chan and ask her how her date with Ishikawa-kun went, I can’t eat any snacks—and I doubt you even have any—I can’t call my mom and tell her where I am, and I can’t even leave this stupid apartment without being yanked back by you!”

The silence was filled by her heavy breathing, her firm glare focused on Toji, who sat on the couch with a slightly shocked look behind his usually dull eyes.

Mitsuko’s chest heaved slightly after the outburst. Her glowing form flickered faintly around the edges, almost like the tether reacted to her emotions.

“…You done?” Toji finally asked.

“No, actually!” she snapped immediately. “You keep acting like this is normal!”

“For me it is.”

The answer comes without hesitation. That shuts her up faster than he expected.

Toji takes another sip of his beer before speaking again.

“You didn’t react this mornin’,” he mutters, leaning back into the couch. “When we talked about the sorcerer.”

“I wasn’t exactly in the mood to sit there ooh-ing and ah-ing, was I?” she scoffs, crossing her arms. It’s probably the youngest he’s seen her act so far. “Besides, what does that matter?”

“You think everyone knows about sorcerers?” He leans forward, elbows resting on his knees as the aluminum can creaks softly in his grip. “Just knowing already makes you dangerous.” His voice goes lower, making her scoot away a little despite knowing he can’t touch her. Toji notices anyway, he always does.

Mitsuko groans dramatically and presses her hands against the floor like he’s physically shaking the information out of her instead of just sitting there staring.

“Fine,” she huffs. “My mom was a sorcerer.” She points sharply at him. “Was.” 

“She’s not a bad person,” I quickly gave him a glare, definitely not intimidating to someone like him at all, “she said her family weren’t good people, so she escaped.”

Toji leans back again, gaze drifting toward the television, “Hm.”

Mitsuko’s eyes widened in disbelief, “That’s all you have to say?!” 

“What d’you want me to say?”

“I don’t know! Something- OH!” She suddenly almost phases through the floor, hands flailing to catch herself. With a sharp flick of his wrist to the tether, she jerks back upward onto solid ground. “Look what you did,” she glares at Toji once she’s stable, “I almost fell through the floor.”

Toji rolls his eyes, “That’s your own fault, stop bein’ dramatic.”

Mitsuko grumbles under her breath as she smooths out her uniform, still clearly offended. Then she hears him mutter quietly, “She sounds smart.”

She looks up at him, “What?”

“Your ma,” he shrugs, “sounds smart for leavin’” he chugs down the rest of his beer and heads to the kitchen. He tosses the can into a fresh trash bag like he didn’t just say something that sounded almost honest.

“You gonna take the trash out too?” she asks before she can stop herself.

“Don’t push your luck,” Toji grumbles. Mitsuko bites back a grin as he heads toward his futon, dropping onto it with the exhaustion of someone twice his age. 

“Hey, can we head to Hachioji tomorrow?” she calls as he lies down. “Also… you forgot to brush your teeth.” A brief pause. “And shower,” she adds quietly.

Toji throws an arm over his eyes, groaning at the thought of ending up with some nagging babysitter.

“…Maybe.”

The knife went straight through her head. Her once-calm heart raced as she tried to process.

 Oh god I’m dead. I’m dead I’m dead I’m–

She could still feel her heart beating against her ribs.Her fingers trembled at her sides.

Why am I not dead?

She turned over her shoulder. A tall man stood there, messy-haired, shirtless, sweatpants twisted from sleep. His expression bored as he lowered the hand that had thrown the knife.

“Guess you’re still a ghost, huh…”

She tried to reply, but her dry throat sent her into a coughing fit. He rolled his eyes and tossed a water bottle. It slammed onto the floor with a dull plastic thud and rolled near her. She reached for it. Her hand went straight through. 

Toji smirked, “Guess you’ll have to suffer” 

She glares at him, swallowing hard to clear her throat.

“Who are you?” The girl finally speaks with a rasp, trying to balance herself on trembling legs.

“Ain’t that my question, yūrei?” Toji replies.

“Can’t be a technique, there's no energy…” she mumbles quietly under her breath before she hears his question. She recognizes the term from old storybooks she read with friends at sleepovers. White kimono. Long black hair. Restless spirits bound by revenge. Rolling her eyes at his childish ways she scoffs. 

“Yūrei?” She snaps, raising her arms to show off her school uniform. “Do I look like a yūrei to you?”

Toji didn’t react, simply looked her over. He recognizes the Hachioji uniform, the light blue accents slightly visible against her translucent frame. He often sees students hanging out at the ramen place he and Shiu go to after bounties. Silence stretched between them. 

““Nakahara,” she relented, giving him her last name stiffly. She glanced back over and saw the bored expression still resting on his face. Groaning, she adds, “Mitsuko. Nakahara Mitsuko.

Toji huffs softly, “Yeah. You’re bright, alright.”

Sunlight streamed through the curtains, striking her body. She glowed. Transparent. Awake. And still… not changed.

He didn’t recognize the name, neither from the jujutsu society or from his bounties. Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and the kid attached herself to him.

“Kid-”

“Don’t call me that” she cuts him off immediately, giving him a once over “you’re clearly around my age.”

Toji scoffs. Although based on her looks they couldn’t be more than a year or two apart. 

“Second?” 

“Third year now actually” she corrects out of habit.

NoWhy am I answering him?I should get out of here

She heads straight for the door. Mumbling under her breath, “she’ll know how to fix it…”

Her hand reached for the doorknob. It passed straight through before her body was yanked back. Stumbling onto her butt she looks up at the door in shock. Scrambling up she tries over and over, the doorknob feeling miles out of reach despite being right in front of her. Huffing a strand of hair out of her face she finally noticed the blue ringlet that glowed around her wrist. A nearly invisible string stretched from her wrist across the room. Straight to him.

Her eyes locked onto his. The question hung there.

“It ain’t me,” Toji said flatly, twisting his wrist once like he’s checking a watch. “Took me two hours to drag you back here.”

Her brows furrowed “Drag-?”

Suddenly loud banging on the door made her jump. 

“You better be up, Zenin!” A voice called from outside.

Toji walked over lazily and opened the door.

 “You’re loud,” he muttered. “It’s early.”

Another man stepped in, his eyes flicking at the girl. “She’s up” he noted casually as he set his briefcase on Toji’s chair. 

That’s it? No shock? No alarm?

“Why’re you dressed like a banker?” Toji asked bluntly

“Figured it’d get us better bounties if we looked professional, ya know,” Shiu shrugged. “Aniki took me to watch that new movie, Kids Return. Trust me, this is the look.”

Toji looks over the tad too big blazer Shiu wore, “The target doesn’t care if you dress fancy.” 

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?”

Her voice cuts through the air of casualness the two men had.

“I just woke up in some random guy’s apartment. I can’t feel or touch anything. I can see through my hands. I got a knife thrown at my head!” Her hands that had raised in her frustration clenched into fists. “Someone please tell me why you two are standing here talking about movies and not freaking out or throwing more knives at me?” 

Shiu glanced at the knife stuck in the wall, then at Toji. Toji just shrugged.

“Some rogue sorcerer didn’t pay back his loan, ¥400,000 payout. Not too big but it’s been pretty dry this month.” Shiu continued as if he hadn’t heard her.

“Better than nothing,” Toji muttered, pulling on a shirt.

She watches the two, heart still racing in confusion and panic, “Wait-”

“Let’s go, gaki” Toji tosses over his shoulder. Mitsuko scoffs annoyed at the two’s blatant disregard and scrambles after them, the ringlet yanking at her wrist to follow.

***

The car engine filled the silence, her hand held tightly onto the string between her and Toji. Every pothole they hit made her scared she’d just phase through the seat. 

She stares at her hands. Still transparent. Still glowing. Surrendering to her fate she sighs before asking, “Can I at least know your names?”

“You’re not mentioning nothin’ about sorcerers,” Toji replied. “Asked questions about everything else.”

He turned enough to see her glowing form “you a sorcerer?”

“Don’t recognize Nakahara from the registries,” Shiu added. 

“No,” she answered firmly, “I’m not a stupid sorcerer and I’m not interested in them either.”

The two don’t press. She squirms in the backseat before piping up.

“You’re not gonna ask–“

“Nope” the two reply bluntly in unison.

Her shoulders sagged, and she sank back into her chair, twirling the string of connection between her fingers with a roll of her eyes.

“Shiu,” the driver said, answering her earlier question. “Zenin,” the guy in the passenger seat added.

“Mitsuko” she introduced herself, forgetting they already knew. “You guys gonna answer all my questions now?”

“Can’t answer what you don’t know,” Toji replied.

“Found you floating all blue and see through while taking care of business” Shiu remarked.

“And you just… took me home?”

Toji just yanked at the connection as an answer.

“Right, never mind” she sighed and looked out the window

The car skidded to a stop next to a convenience store.

“Let’s go” Toji commanded as he got out of the car. Mitsuko follows closely, not liking how the ringlet tightens around her wrist when she lags behind. 

“Are we getting snacks?” 

“Shiu likes being discreet” 

***

They walked through the alley behind the convenience store. Zigzagging through the narrow paths until a man smoking in a shadowed tunnel comes into view.

The man glanced over as if feeling us there. He scoffs and turns to us.

“Another bounty hunter come to try his luck? You don’t even have cursed energy.” The rogue sorcerer laughs, sizing Toji up “Good luck kid”

Mitsuko assumes he can’t see her, the daylight allowing her stealth in her transparency. She only blinks before her body is yanked forward.

One second she was behind Toji in the alley and now she’s stumbling beside him. Her body is now visible in the tunnel's shadow as she catches up. 

Toji has the sorcerer pinned to the wall. A hand fisted in his collar as he slammed the man’s body against the already cracked cement. The impact caused a puff of debris to surround the two, rubble crumbling from the sorcerer sized indent now in the tunnel wall. 

She felt it. Not the pain but the force behind it. She was yanked forward with every slight movement. Her feet never get a chance to balance herself. Her eyes tried to track his punches. Each strike landed with brutal precision.

How?She didn’t sense any cursed energy and yet…

The rogue sorcerer tried hard to retaliate but it was clear who was dominating. Toji didn’t give the man a chance to lift a finger to use his technique. Toji tore the concealed blade from the sorcerer’s belt.

It was swift. Silent. You wouldn’t have known it happened until the choked scream gurgled from the sorcerer’s throat. 

Mitsuko flinched as the man's body hit the ground, the tether jerking slightly. Her heart slowly calms from the fight. She felt every move before she saw them.

“Thought you’d last longer” Toji mumbles in mild disappointment before his foot comes down. Her eyes shut tight but it doesn’t save her from the crunch. She’d seen curses before, seen how gross the exorcisms could be. But this, this was real and it made her stomach lurch. 

The tether finally slacks between them. She can now feel her hands trembling against her side. She wasn’t trembling because of the fight. She was trembling because he hadn’t hesitated once.

No cursed energy.No cursed technique.Just pure skill.

Mitsuko stood silently behind them as they counted the yen they got from the bounty. Her knees nearly buckled as she stared at the ground. Not from the violence. From the realization that she wasn’t protected. Not really. If she were solid — if he chose to — she would be just another body on the ground.

The trio stood beside the car outside the sketchy looking auto shop.

“¥400,000,” Shiu babbled as he passed Toji his cut, “I’m telling ya, it’s the blazer”

Toji looks at the girl. Her body slowly becomes more visible as the sun begins to set. 

“You’re pale,” he remarked bluntly

“I’m transparent actually” she joked but her voice holds no humor.

Shiu looks between the two, “Well I’m gonna get me a Ramune on the way home. See ya!” he waves as he hops in his car and heads home, excusing himself from the awkward tension.

“Let’s go” Toji doesn’t wait before starting to walk.

The ringlet tugs her forward, finding herself stumbling after him once more. She watches as their arms swing slightly in unison. His hand in his pocket moved with each of his steps. Her mind flashes with memories of what took place. 

To move at the speed he does. To sync with the almost monstrous attacks he delivers.

Not that he’d tell anyone, but like most of Japan, Toji believes in the possibility of life after death. He’s seen uglier curses than some sorcerers, so it’s not the craziest idea.

Toji lifted his hand, unsurprisingly going right through her. The girl didn’t react or show any signs of distress. She seemed quite peaceful as she floated there. Unfortunately for her, Toji didn’t consider anything his business unless a yen amount was attached. 

He should just leave. Turn around and pretend he hadn’t seen anything. Force Shiu to stop for some tonkotsu after they got their payout.

As he turned to walk out, he felt something pull at his wrist. A blue ringlet, glowing faintly in and out, connected him to the yūrei as he was now calling her. Raising a brow, he tried again to touch her, but his hand phased right through. He turned to leave only to have his wrist yanked back once more.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“What do you want?” he yells annoyed, voice bouncing off the cracked walls of the empty building.

He spends some time angrily yanking at the invisible link between them and failing over and over to grab her arm. Damn it… what the hell is this? Finally, he feels a graze of something solid beneath his fingers, able to move the yūrei an inch before his shock causes his grip to loosen, his hand phasing through her once again. 

Damn it!

His annoyance returned quickly as his hand phased through again and again. Toji barely made it to the front door when Shiu barged in. 

 “Oi, Zenin, you’re wastin’ my gas!” Shiu grumbles. He sees the scene, a minute of silence weighs heavy between them until “new pet?”

Toji glares, brows furrowed and breathing labored in frustration, “Shut up. Damn kid won’t let me go.”

“Kid looks dead to me,” Shiu remarks, unable to see the link Toji shares to the glowing girl.

After a couple of minutes, Toji manages to get the yūrei to Shiu’s car, where she unceremoniously phases right through to no one's surprise. He surrenders himself to yanking the yūrei home, cursing the damn sorcerer who put up the bounty that led him here. That sorcerer better thank the gods that it's not too far from Toji’s home, or he may have had the same fate as the target. 

He had originally planned to leave her on the ground, but five minutes later he slid a blanket under the girl who floated an inch off the floor in the middle of his bare-bones apartment. What else did a man need other than a couch, a futon, and a TV? Shiu was the reason Toji got the TV in the first place. He always claimed Toji seemed too old-fashioned and needed to catch up with the fast-growing modern era of Tokyo. Shiu always forces him to watch some weird anime that came out last year called Evangelion. 

Her ghost-like presence made Toji think she wouldn’t bother his usual routine. That was until nightfall, the yūrei was basically a second sun, resorting to shoving his face under his pillow to get a wink of sleep. Days passed, and she showed no sign of waking up. He learned the link might’ve been a fluke when he was able to leave the apartment freely the next morning. On days off, Shiu and Toji would sit on the couch watching their show and drinking cheap beers they managed to swipe from Shiu’s older brother, the yūrei not even a distraction anymore. Just a quick “she alive yet?” from Shiu and a brief “nah” from Toji.

Toji lets out a loud groan as he wakes up, uncovering his head as the August weather makes him sweat through his thin blankets. Dragging his feet to his fridge and throwing back a cup of water. 

Then he sees it.

Movement beneath her eyelids. Chest rising and falling faster than before.

His Heavenly Restriction didn’t let him ignore it.

A shaky exhale leaves her lips as her eyes finally open. She doesn’t move for a second, simply breathing deep and staring at the ceiling. He sees her fingers twitching, as if her body is trying to remember how to move. 

She doesn’t feel like anything. No cursed energy. No hostility. Just…nothing.

Toji watches as she slowly raises her hand to her face, only for it to phase through her cheek. She has a brief reaction, but it’s clear she lacks the energy to do more than a slight widening of her eyes and a soft, shaky sigh. She sits up slowly, her back to him. Toji doesn’t hesitate.

BAM

The yūrei stares at the knife that now protrudes from the wall in front of her, the metal still quivering. With furrowed brows and widened eyes she slowly turns over her shoulder, finally realizing she’s not alone. Seeing the man standing in the kitchen, she watches his scarred lips mumble.

He was treated as a sub-human. Verbal and physical abuse at every corner with no one to stop it. Thrown into pits or rooms full of curses both to punish his uselessness and as a last attempt to see if maybe he’s a late bloomer and something could be made of him. His father didn’t care, he already had his heir who manifested a technique the clan deemed enough, why bother with the other one who offers no gain. And his poor mother, at least he knew she held sympathy despite her incapability to help. To think he was even seen as below a woman in this misogynistic clan was like a punch to his already battered face. 

All his life as he’d sit in the barely a storage closet washitsu he was given he’d think over and over. Why would he stay with these monsters? Why stay with people who have given him nothing? Why stay with the elders who threw okayu on the floor just to laugh at his starving child self, who still had hope of change, lick up anything he was given just to please them?

The answer is… he shouldn’t. He knows that and so does everyone else. So why is he still here after every attempt to make him leave? Because for so long he had hope. When his Heavenly Restriction started becoming apparent during his time fighting curses he had hoped the elders would relent. See that he had something worth cultivating and yet they did nothing. He roamed around the compound being either ignored or ridiculed. Using the space he was given to train himself. At first it was into someone the elders would want but over time it was clear he had already become someone the elders would never admit they were scared of. 

The day finally came when he left that damn compound. Physically it was easier than he thought. Walking through the kabukimon he expected a weight to be lifted off his back, to feel free from his shackles. Instead the weight dragged behind him as a reminder, giving him a reason to work hard to relieve himself of the persona the Zenin clan gave him since birth.

Three months later 

Now that he was free Toji quickly learned that combat was the thing he was best at. Unfortunately, that wasn’t all it took to get a job or support himself especially since he managed to hitch himself to Tokyo. Eventually he met a guy by the name of Kong Shiu who introduced him to the world of “freelance” work aka under-the-table assassinations. Toji didn’t want to return to the jujutsu society, especially with how influential the Zenin clan is he’d definitely run into someone who knows him. However, it didn’t take much to convince Toji to join Shiu, the high yen amount and his lack thereof did all the talking in Toji’s mind. He took up his first job alongside Shiu who learned he wasn’t as into the physical side like Toji was. Shiu took up the role of negotiation before, as he calls it, “letting Toji loose”. After getting their first payout Toji couldn’t believe his eyes. He was still in his right mind then, making the right choice of getting some run down apartment, necessities, and food. Eventually after doing enough missions and getting that money high he turned to celebrating in the Tokyo nightlife. Drinking, gambling, sleeping with women who were into the new chiseled and cleaner body he attained from consistent jobs and his new ability to get things to pamper himself.