Chapter Text
[Intro.] Little Red Riding Hood was losing herself when she met the wolf.
1.
You kill a man at the age of 7.
It doesn't make much noise, the murder. There isn't any blood either, not like in the american movies they played on TV. Just a body, lying hazardly on the nightingale floors. You don't really know what to do, and don't really know how to move, but you do realize that you have committed something.
The realisation of it comes moderately. Ah, the old ladies will punish you real hard for sure this time though. You'll probably have to stay in that room again, and won't be able to eat for a few days. Will the big old man know about this? Your hands clam at the thought.
In the movies, the policemens are the first ones informed. They catch the culprit, a bad person (are you a bad person now?-) then puts them in an even tinier, tinier room than the one the old ladies put you into, and thus for an even longer period of time.
You realize you should probably run (you do not know where to run).
When he walks into the room, he doesn't say much. A brief overall look is enough to assess the situation. Zenin Toji looks at you, then at the body, then at you again. A scratch to his neck. He looks at your standing, unmoving form once more and at the piece of fabric on the floor. Neither of you speak, as there isn't much to say.
The silence takes so much space, you wonder if you could hide behind it for the time being.
You think the man looks like he wants to leave, and he does. He turns back towards the exit because he has no time for any of this (what did they do to this child?). The only reason why he returned to this shithole is for the oh-so praised weapon the Zenin estate keeps in locked. It's his now, so he can go for good and never return to this hell (not this one, never). So Zenin Toji walks towards the exit, but then he remembers (a small secluded room, just big enough for a child and a flood of spirits.), and then he stops. And then...
Then, Toji points at the closet beside the man's nightstand. "He has shirts in there." He talks as if talking about some toy you lost, and he leaves the room like leaving for groceries.
2.
You run after Zenin Toji as you do not know where else to run, and you leave the pieces of fabric and of yourself on the floor as you do not know where else you could put them.
You do take the small purse you brought with you a year before arriving here.
"Don't follow me."
"I...can carry your heavy stuff, make them lighter a little too! A-and the old man said I'll get strong, one day."
Zenin turns at you, towering, and you now really realize how impressive this man's build is. The old ladies weren't joking with the gossips.
"Now why would I care about-"
You take out the purse from one of your pockets, opening it up. 2 bills of 1000 yen come out of it, and Zenin Toji stares.
"..."
3.
"G-Gojo-sama, you cannot be in this area!"
At the age of 7, you miss an encounter with one of the loves of your life by a minute and 38 seconds.
4.
You get accustomed with the man's rituals rather quickly. It is after all not very difficult as it basically consists in accepting suspicious jobs and spending his hard-earned money in noodle cups and gambling.
You do not approve of the latter, but Toji does not care, so you contempt yourself with the fact that you are fed for the help you provide. Your powers are of use after all, Toji realizes. Any traces of his crimes now vanish, leaving none that could lead up to him, even if for now the consequences wouldn't be as important as in the future, because Toji does not kill yet. He hits people, beats them up, he steals, but he does not take life for money as he doesn't know he is capable of such thing yet.
The two of you wander through cities in the north of japan. Hotel prices vary and your incomes do too. It is not a comfortable life, and definitely not an appropriate one for a growing 8 year old child. But, you think, you get to choose your onigiri flavor when lunch comes, and most of the time you have a blanket to cover yourself with at night. The combinis you go into have air conditioners, and the horse races are quite entertaining.
You think you are content with that.
It is not a comfortable life, and definitely not an appropriate one for someone your age, but you are more then content with it, as there are no more women yelling at you or any tightly knotted kimonos on your body. The pieces of fabric don't fall here. The piece of you don't either (are any of them left?).
You and Zenin Toji are not family, you do not feel as one, but you do have trust in his capacity to protect you, while he does rely on your powers to rest a little more, and for two of the most lonely people on earth, you think that it counts for something.
It is more than enough.
You do not question from what he himself is running from.
.
"Zenin-san, I want the salmon one."
"Stop calling me-Huh? It's tuna mayo for today, there's a discount on that one."
5.
You meet Zenin Toji at the age of 7.
You and him are not family, but as he takes the form of loneliness itself, you think that there is nothing more familiar than that, so you run to him.
Zenin accepts to take a lost child in exchange of 2000 yens. He buys noodle cups, a can of beer, and a pack of pokis on discount.
It is not a comfortable life, but it is more than enough.
Then, it goes a little something like this.
You turn 10 as you and Toji-san watch a village burn into flames.
You hold his hand for the first and last time in your lives. Zenin Toji holds your palm tighter, as he is not sure if he will ever escape from the torment in front of him that is called hell.
You guide him through the forest and reach the place that has served as your shelter for the past week.
You think about a young woman behind an altar, and her never-ending bounds of hope for the glory of a village. He remembers of a fallen soul who could not save itself from its own demise, as she did not possess the powers for such change of destiny.
"She would've lived if she had some cursed energy."
You turn to look at him, really look at him, as you are not sure what kind of expression he is making after stating such thought. "I don't think it would've changed...this. It wouldn't have changed what happened."
"But in the end, it was only a question of her or them."
He does not say much after that, and you don't either, as there isn't really much to say.
The next day, as the moon rises over the broken roof, he looks at the altar, his back facing your sleeping form, and scoffs.
"What a dumb choice she made."
.
You are woken up by several knocks as two men in dark robes stand in front of you. You do not understand why so you search for Toji-san in panic, then realize that he and his bag are nowhere to be found.
One of the men, the older one, walks up to you with a paper in his hand and holds it out for you to take. You do not want to read it.
The paper falls out of your hands.
Zenin Toji sells you to his family for the sum of 3000 yens two days after your 10th birthday.