Chapter Text
Walking down the stale aired hallway sent goosebumps up Kazuko’s spine. Auntie said it was best that she waited inside the car, but she didn’t want to be alone.
The place the car had broken down in gave the little defenseless girl the creeps.
Looming tall trees were everywhere, the dirt road was all but abandoned signs of life, and those weird stone statues in the ground around the forest plus in front of the entrance to the nature claimed hallway left the disquieting felling of being watched upon.
Kazuko clung to her auntie’s arm before having her small body pushed away. “Kazuko. What have I said about touching? I’m your caretaker not your daddy. Keep up with me, that’s the least you can do...” She said to the small child in annoyance. A moment later her head turned away and onwards the woman marched, her high heels resonating a rhythmic clicking.
The small girl followed along as the thought of being left alone with those statues uneased her senses. Pacing down the looming hallway obediently with no delay the little one strode onwards.
One, two, three, four the pit pattering of water sounded with each collision as dirty muddy liquid fell from the cracks in the tiles.
The child wasn’t the type to whine or be bratty, her daddy had taught her to be kind and carrying towards others no matter what the world threw her way.
She would never hurt another unless necessary.
Red paint chipped away at the solid concrete walls. Nature fought back against the concrete tiles as some patches of grass grew between cracks in the old material. It was beyond obvious this place had been deserted long ago by its owners; if not for its appearance the feeling of being watched by ghosts or the undead made the hallway seem haunting.
The small child kept a good pace with her auntie. She wasn’t really Kazuko’s aunt, more like a family friend she was passed off to when she was ready young.
The child barely remembered one of her parents, their orange feiry hair and scarlet irises with a tinge of orange. Kazuko recalled that he loved her. He always said she reminded him of her other parent; whom she knew had identical white hair like her own, how her eye colour fell in between their two colours like being balanced out. But when he died, she was taken in by a distant family member who was friends with her father. She gave the little girl the essentials she needed to live but that was it.
No going to functions like the other parents.
No activities outside of school.
No play dates.
No time for bonding or fun with one another.
No hugs or kisses.
Just what was required of her to keep her safe and healthy.
The girl continued to follow behind the short lady closely without making her get angry once more. After another good few minutes, the woman had about enough of pointlessly walking and was about to head on back however this all changed when the hallway finally ended.
If only the girl had turned back that day... she wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for her own naiveness... Then again, she was only 7 at the time it happened.
—- 17 years later —-
“Kazuko! Good to see you kid! What brings you in these parts? Now come on, you got to tell us what you’ve been up to as of late-“ Barked the male at the counter of the dine in. The pre-teen had become good friends with him over the past few years. Mr. Whitewood was his name. He had a build of any averaged middle-aged man aside from the distinct charcoal wolf ears and matching fluffy tail trailing behind him. The male was one of the more fortunate spirits to have both a human and spirit form, making life easier on his part.
“I’ve been out east for a couple months... was trying to get my hands on some Fenix features-“ The girl grumbled. She was able to manage getting a few but at the cost of almost falling off a cliffside.
“Fenix feathers?! Why they come at a high price in this day and age after the scarcity of the bloody birds. You find a well-off spirit to trade with and your golden! Better be quick though ‘cause I heard the birds are repopulating again.” He advised while walking over from behind the tall aged oak counter with some stew.
Before she could say no, he plonked the bowl in front of the kid, some escaping its confinements onto the table. “On the house. You deserve it!” He said heartily while patting her on the back; more like attempting to make the small spirit fall off her chair.
“I couldn’t, you know me. Here I have some left over gold I can give you.” She stated while rummaging through her pockets to find her little bundle of gold. The wolf spirit placed a hand on the stressed girl’s shoulder.
“Kid I insist. Don’t worry your little head, you’ve travelled a long distance, and you need nutrition to grow into a strong spirit.” He stated before smiling down at her, his light brown eyes looking into her golden yellow ones. She knew there was bound to be a catch to him being so generous, the wolf spirit was known to gift his travellers with food or alcohol before asking a favour. “Besides it’s not every day someone like me gets to be friends with someone of your kind.” The smaller spirit sighed at the words he spoke, taking up a wooden spoon left on the table to eat her soup.
She knew exactly what he was referring to.
It was uncommon to be a river spirit let alone a dragon.
Going through various places in the spirit realm she has come across a couple of her kind; all of which ruled the area. Some had families while most were alone. She never considered even going near one of them. Dragons were territorial after all and the last thing she wanted was to be in a position where she would either one, be punished severely or two, end up fading.
The small dragon spirit didn’t know a too much about dragons either even though she was one herself. They possessed magic in most cases, could transform into a human form or their true spirit form, they could fly, swim extremely well, destroy their enemies with ease in most cases and they were extremely protective of their hoards, family, partners and young.
The kid honestly didn’t like the thought of being protected by an overly possessive and over baring dragon. Thank goodness she didn’t have a clue who her other parent was because she didn’t want to be smothered with love. She never had been anyway after her father passed away.
She knew her other parent was a spirit, most definitely with dragon heritage or it would be impossible to be a dragon spirit. Or there could be the chance she was reliving a second life, but that was unlikely as she was aging but very slowly.
As the white-haired dragon spirit ate her soup in peace Mr Whitewood remained, pulling up a seat from a neighbourly table. She could see where the conversation was travelling from a mile away.
“Hey kid- If you don’t mind, I’m busy for the coming few weeks but I’ve got a delivery I need to get over to the next domain. I’ll pay you handsomely-“ Oh great here it comes.
Hopefully it’s to one of the water domains, Islands weren’t too bad to get to even though the little spirit feared drowning. She didn’t want to deal with desert scapes, she almost passed out in a sand dune the last time. “- It’s for a friend the works near the bathhouse-“
Kazuko snapped out of her train of thought instantaneously. That domain was the one closest to here, however, she wasn’t some inexperienced traveller. That domain belonged to a river dragon spirit; one she did not want to poke at with a stick.
“Na uh uh. Sorry, you know how I feel about walking into other dragon’s territories let alone a powerful dragon! I know why you’re trying to get me to do this. Just because I got a temporary shapeshifting spell doesn’t mean anything if I’m close enough to the damn beast! And in THAT dragon’s domain?! I know about Lord Shigaraki- you don’t get the name All for One for nothing. Names like that signify they are not to be messed with. He is extremely influential and powerful. If I walk into his territory, I’ll be fading away out of existence in a matter of hours even minutes. The risk isn’t worth it,“ Kazuko stated honestly, it was a matter of fact. As she huffed and continued to eat the soup a brown small sack was dropped on the table making her nearly jump to the ceiling.
“100 gold pieces,” he said with a neutral face, his furry dark grey ears twitching slightly. He was being persistent, a sign of being desperate. The wolf spirit probably was turned down by other travelers prior. Not many spirits headed into that domain since they could potentially end up trapped there.
If the spirit had ANY use to the bathhouse they would definitely be kept there. Kazuko had heard a few travellers had gone missing after going into that domain never to be seen again.
Aside from spirits visiting the bath house or shops only delivery spirits or tradesmen had access to go in and out as they pleased, even then entry was tight if the spirit was a common spirit or lower.
And if the spirit so happens to be dropping something off without permission it would be the end for that spirit; the very thing Mr Whitewood was trying to do.
“100?! For a job like that?! That’s not worth it!” The dragon spirit knew how much that was worth. She could live carefree and have a normal lifestyle for almost half a year with that amount of gold. But for a trip like this into a vastly wide known dragon’s domain she wasn’t going to risk it.
She wasn’t that gullible.
“300 gold pieces.” He said this time still with a plain unreadable face dropping two new brown bags of gold. “And 100 gold if you make it back.”
They both started each other off as if trying to pressure the other for different reasons.
“Now that’s just being desperate!” She called him out. Even if it was a lot, she wasn’t surely considering-
—-7 hours later—
The little spirit walked along the dirt road in the shady woods, her gold bag feeling a lot heavier to the point she now had to put it in her small worn-down backpack instead of its original pocket space.
If Kazuko wasn’t so hopeless for gold to stay alive it would have been a no brainer to not take the job. But she was a young spirit and the thought of living a somewhat normal life for a little while made her jump at the opportunity before thinking it through.
Her naiveness showed no bond.
The moonlight shone down between the branches leaving behind a dappled effect on the narrow path bellow. Jumping over cracks in the earth, weaving under low tree branches and avoiding big spiderwebs by a hair was expected of going the back way into the dragon’s domain.
The subtle noises of crickets chirped into the quiet night air along with the sounds of an owl hooting or a bunny hopping through some bushes filled her sensitive hearing. As planned the tall forest trees made up for perfect coverage just in case someone decided to fly overhead while the shrubbery and bushes covered up her tracks unless it were an expert who knew what they were looking for. The likelihood of that occurring was extremely low hence why she chose the route in the first place.
The small animals wondering about the forest were spirits too but a lot lower than a standard spirit. By now she knew she had crossed the border into the dragon’s domain a couple hours prior.
It felt like a shift in temperature almost, like winter making a comeback against summer.
The spirit remembered the first time when she was little entering the spirit realm with her Auntie. The shift was a feeling Kazuko would never forget when crossing over from one realm to another.
That experience still haunted her dreams till this day.
In the distance the faint glowing of an urbanised area could be seen, captivating in size and architectural beauty. Kazuko came to a stop just near the end of the forest looking on at the place ahead of her with its Japanese style shops, housing and the ever-present towering structure of the bathhouse.
Travelers had spoken of the bathhouse being around for centuries at this point, always owned by the Shigaraki family to this very day. With the amount of money and connections the very place made it was an obvious choice to keep it running.
Most dragons’ domains had a flourishing urban area or a main building a dragon resided within, but only a few dragon spirits like All for Rivers had decided on using a business as the centre of his prosperity and the thriving populace he ruled over.
Kazuko shuffled through her outer pockets pulling out small nick knacks before depositing them back in place. Next came her inner pockets with notebooks containing guides to venturing around certain terrain. Where did she place her spell book? Knowing her luck, it was back in the dine in with the wolf.
Just as she considered to give up the cold exterior of the small leather-bound book touched her fingertips safely inside one of her bottom inner jacket pockets. Withdrawing the notebook Kazuko scavenged for what she desperately needed flipping each page with intent.
Fire spark spell, odour spell, Truth spell, ah ha!
In the book was the written-out copy of her most recent edition to her growing collection of spells. How other spirits could memorise all these she had no idea, but hopefully one day she would too. After all it was her dream to venture the domains of the spirit realm and become well known for her talents in magical enchantments and smell casting.
Common spirits usually only could learn minor spells at most which was a challenge as it was, however, higher spirits had a better grasp on magic and their potential was unlimited. One day maybe she would invent a few spells of her own, but enough of such daydreaming, she had a job to do.
Carefully extracting the piece of paper Kazuko read the written script under her breath. The incantations slid across her tong like clockwork.
In an instant her features began shifting to accommodate for the simple transformation spell. Her once white scaled dragon tail with a yellowy orange tuff developed into green scales and the hair on the end disappeared entirely leaving behind a rougher natural reptile tail. The small horns on top of her head shifted and faded away. Her eyes became narrower in the centre and more linear than rounded, similar to that of cat eyes.
So far this was the only form Kazuko could shapeshift into. The only reason she couldn’t do any others, was mainly due to her lack of understanding the ancient language enough to change some words to transform into a whole other spirit.
So, the lizard spirit disguise would have to do.
Looking left looking right the lone spirit inspected her surroundings in case an onlooker had seen her transform. No one was within sight at that moment.
Pocketing the book with the paper inside back into her inner pockets Kazuko then readied herself.
Carefully putting one foot after the other she ventured onwards out of the bushes and tree line. The sprinting begun once she was out of the forest coverage. All the winding grass lands that surrounded the urban landscape flowed with the steady breeze of the cool summer’s night fanning her tired body.
But her night had only just begun. The hardest parts of her delivery were right around the corner.
***
“Kid you are a legend. Mr Whitewood was right when he claimed you could get in unscaled,” the axolotl spirit chuckled as he spoke with Kazuko under hushed breaths. If the dragon or any of his workers caught them now, she and the client wouldn’t have a chance. Kazuko fiddled with her fingers as he led her out of the back of his restaurant. She had provided him with the rare and hard to come by spices Mr Whitewood had provided before her departure. Turned out the owner needed them for this coming month.
His previous supplier was on holiday with his family and of course the restaurant owner had forgot to ask for double his normal order the last time they were in town.
Following the chubby half a door height male out into the street he halted and turned round. He hummed a melody with a smug grin on his face attempting to retrieve an item from his pocket. “And one last thing, if you don’t mind I would like to g-“
“Mr Mizuno what a pleasant surprise to see you out of your shop,” came a smooth voice from beside the two of them. The axolotl halted and his hand retreated from his pocket coming to shake the newcomer’s hand hurriedly with a plastered smile.
Looking over at the interaction Mr Mizuno was clearly desperately trying to keep the peace and prevent any suspicion being brought forth.
The spirit before them was tall, a purple mist engulfed his figure leaving one to wonder what he appeared like underneath. But alas that would never happen, it was a enenra. They were rare to come by and only spirits of higher class could manage to have these spirits within their ranks.
Why were they so hard to get? Because they could do something most couldn't; they could teleport. This was not just short but also long distances, and if the spirit was lucky multiple people could be teleported at once with an even rarer find of its kind.
Kazuko didn’t dare look at the spirit wrong and remained a neutral stare. This spirit she knew all too well and had been told stories about through Mr Whitewood and his associates.
Kurogiri, one of All for Rivers top spirits. They were an extremely loyal worker of the dragon lord. If she gave off the wrong atmosphere here or spoke too openly it would appear suspicious. The best way out this was playing the nice game.
The axolotl spirit took his hand away finally still with the exact same facial expression. “It’s going to be a rough few days around here so I though the air would do me some good. Its summer after all; the bath house is going to be stacked from what I heard,” he said calmly but a few sweat droplets gave away he was slightly nervous.
Kurogiri gave a simple nod to the shop owner right before turned his wispy head over to Kazuko, his yellow vivid smoky eyes looking her straight on. “I didn’t hear of a delivery happening so soon in this area Mr Mizuno. Just a last-minute stock up?” The spirits voice hung heavy in the air.
“Oh, yes! I managed to find another willing supplier who could deliver last minute, here, you should try some yourself with a meal, their top of the range!” He said guiding himself around the questions to avoid any confrontation or worse. He placed his hand back into his pocket and handed Kurogiri a small pack of the spices. By now Kazuko had figured out he was probably going to pass it onto her before departing into his shop. Right now, it was instead being used as a bargaining chip to distract the shadow like spirit of what was really happening here.
The spirit took the small bundle and opened it to find a red fiery coloured spice inside. His yellow wispy eyes widened some. “Saffron. I didn’t expect you to be so generous,” spoke Kurogiri bagging away the spice into his inner vest pocket.
“Seems like you value your customers quality of fine foods Mr Mizuno. Lord All for One would be pleased with your contribution to serving the best of the best, as expected from his domain. I’ll give him a good word,” He stated calmly making Mr Mizuno’s eyes almost pop out of his eye sockets.
“As for you,” the enenra spirit stared into Kazuko’s eyes with an unreadable look, placing pressure on her mentally without his knowing. “You must be exhausted from your travels. Miss…” He stopped waiting for a response.
On beat she replied, “Kazuko… just Kazuko sir…” Fiddling with her sleaves she just prayed he would leave soon so she could get back to the safety of another domain. She only had around 2 maybe 3 hours of the spell left. This spending time on diddle daddling here had to come to a close and fast.
The spirit nodded his head which would have been missed if she blinked her eyes. “Kazuko, might I interest you in a privet room at the bath house? After all a traveller with such precious cargo requires a well-deserved rest…”
Her eyes widened some. Kazuko didn’t expect in all her years being alive that she would be offered to stay at the bath house, but unfortunately, she knew the risks and simply couldn’t stay around. She smiled softly and bowed her head. “Thank you kindly for the offer sir but I should be heading back to my own domain,” she said composedly.
Kurogiri spoke once more with a hint of urging in his tone, “But I insist. It seems like you have no other orders to complete tonight and to begin your trip with no rest is never good. Why the rush to leave when you can spend the night at the bath house, free of charge?”
It took Kazuko a second to soke in what words slipped out of his mouth.
Free.
Of.
Charge.
He was offering a free privet room in the bath house which would cost usually well over 500 gold pieces to rent by the hour, yet he was giving it away for free. Not only that but he was insisting upon it.
Kazuko knew this was fishy, but the fact Kurogiri had insisted on it and was still suspicious as to why she wanted to leave so eagerly she knew that there was no way getting out of this.
She would have to comply.