Chapter Text
“So, you’re the shaman who is going to save our children are you? Is that what the civilians consider a proper seiza these days?” The elder sneered with an almost impressive amount of derision. Especially considering she had literally just walked into the room. She seems like the sort of person who was always looking for things to complain about just because they want to make everybody else miserable.
I look down at where I was sitting crisscross, “No, most of my clients are the civilian farmer types, they hold no concern for how a person sits. They’re much too busy trying to survive the winter.”
The same elder turned to Madara, “and you’ve let this person be in charge of healing our children.” The word ‘person’ was spat with so much high-class disdain you would think I had just spat on her shoes.
Madara, rather unsurprisingly, didn’t so much as blink, “she is here to help our children because she has helped us before and because we have already exhausted every other avenue short of bringing in outside healers.” He turns, “would you please explain to the esteemed elders what you explained to us.”
I really wanted to sigh; it was obvious that at least the first two were absolutely not going to believe a single word coming out of my mouth. The last one, a woman with the absolute tightest bun, seemed like she would much rather be ripping her enemy’s limb from limb than sitting here. There was an impressive amount of violence condensed into that woman’s soul, and this is a room surrounded by bloodthirsty Uchiha.
“Right, someone, somewhere, was desperate enough to sign a contract with a demon” lets call it a demon for simplicities sake, “and in return for whatever they gave away they set said demon onto your children specifically. I can feel the binds of a contract wrapped around their spirits which is how I know, what I have advised your clan head is that there are two paths moving forward, either identify the person who signed the contract or identify the specific entity that the contract was made with.”
There you go, very professional, now if only these people actually believed me. Don’t get me wrong I encounter people who don’t believe me quite often. Most never do more than call me a demon or a witch and be done with it. Every once in a while I get someone who actually is willing to get physical about it, but on the whole I’ve generally stopped caring whether or not someone thinks I am crazy, or lying, or whatever. Been there, done that. However, this situation was slightly more precarious given these people could kill me in a heartbeat. Which should, in theory, make me more desperate to get everyone to believe me but really. If they decide I’m an enemy agent or something and kill me, it is how it is. I am all out of fucks to give about it, especially since the only two truly important people believe me.
The scoff from old lady 1, as I am now dubbing the only elder who has yet spoken to me, is very obviously a well-practiced gesture. “Obviously this woman is either delusional or an enemy come to sabotage us, either way she never should have been brought here, into our home, much less anywhere near our children.”
I just look at her, I mean really, what is this whole pissing contest even supposed to do. She is clearly convincing neither Big Uchiha nor Little Uchiha. What does she expect is going to happen. That I’m going to suddenly start cackling before launching into a villainous monologue about how she discovered my evil plot to murder their kids?
Turning to Big Uchiha because I am so not dealing with privileged old rich people today, I ask “did you need something else from me?”
With a truly impressive poker face considering I could feel how pissed he was at old lady 1, he spoke “I had hoped to get a more in-depth explanation from you about what sort of demon this is and how to go about looking for it or the person responsible. May we sit?”
After my quick agreement, they all sat down in my room. Wow this is a nice room, enough space for 6 people to all sit comfortably. I never stay in places this nice. Stop it, focus, demon hurting kids, no time to appreciate the interior decorating.
“OK, so my thoughts so far are that what this thing is doing requires a lot of power. Keeping the kids in stasis like this it is requires a lot more power than if it were to kill them outright. Which is awful to say but true. It needs to be getting this power from somewhere. So, either it was already powerful before forming the contract, or it is getting the power to do so from the person its contracted with.”
“So, we are dealing with a powerful enemy fueling this demon?” Madara speaks up, the others apparently willing to save their commentary for later.
“Not necessarily powerful in the way you would consider powerful. These sorts of things gain power one of two ways. First is through belief, the belief of a widespread group of people or culture, often through folk tales, or scary stories, or legends. However, I have never come across anything that would really fit this instance. There also aren’t any cults I’m aware of in Fire Country that fit this either. The other way is through sacrifice, you often hear stories of people trading their souls, their lifespan, or sometimes the lives of their children.
“Something like this likely is not actually powerful enough to do this on its own, it would likely be easier to recognize and something I would have heard of. Which leaves the second option. Do you know of any odd deaths, probably a string of deaths, in the general vicinity?”
Madara leans back, shares a glance with his brother before looking back to me, “we have not, but it is something that can be looked into.”
I look back down at my notebook trying to think of anything else that might be useful. I don’t usually fuck with anything bigger than ghosts and ghouls. It also doesn’t help that the bible doesn’t exist here, so the definition of demon is different than before. No devil or angels, no Jesus or God. Although the more European monsters like werewolves and vampires do appear so maybe those sorts of demons exist as well? Unclear. I wish I had the internet, or at least a library.
Then an idea occurs to me, looking up I say, “I do know that there is an old temple not too far from here, I know the head monk there pretty well he might be able to help identify that symbol I showed you. That is the only other place to start.” Probably the closest equivalent to googling I can get here is finding an old wise man and asking a bunch of questions.