Chapter Text
One thing Toji notices about her is her taste for expensive things and her disregard for common courtesy.
Today, she comes out the shared bathroom in nothing but lingerie. It's all lace, in a bright red color that stands out from the rest of the room. He knows it's new because the tags are still on, awkwardly hanging on her body as she scrutinizes herself in the floor mirror.
Right, she does this because the mirrors in the bathroom aren't full-length. She told him that before, the first time she came out in a racy nightgown and he complained about it and scolded her for not knowing that he's a single man in the company of an attractive woman–
"Hm… I never would have guessed."
Back then, he didn't know if she was referring to him being single or her being attractive. But she continued doing this, each time after she showered and changed before going to bed, she would open the bathroom from his side and look at herself in the mirror.
No, it's not her expensive taste or her disregard for common courtesy that he keeps noticing, it's her narcissism. He doesn't tell her that she's attractive or show her that he is attracted, but he knows that she thinks she is. She knows she is, and she knows what she can do and who she can get– Fuck. He knows he's attracted to her, has known it ever since they met.
It's not often Toji encounters his kind in the middle of an exorcism, especially in a place like this. Back alleys were reserved for other things, but not exorcisms. Not of this level. Not of this... violence. There's a woman standing with her hand pressed against the back of a curse's head, crushing it into the wall. Jujustu sorcerers are far and few in this part of Japan, and he hasn't heard of someone who would use their bare hands to exorcise curses.
She says something and the curse snaps back to her. That itself proves that it's not just an ordinary curse, it's a sentient one. And the way she has it so easily pinned to the wall just shows that she isn't just an ordinary sorcerer either.
They start conversing in another language, an ancient one. He can't understand a thing, and it doesn't sound like anything he's ever heard when he was younger. The shikigami held by the Zenin might have conversed in this language, so what does that make her?
The curse sputters out something that sounds derogatory before cackling, and the woman huffs, just rolls her shoulders calmly. And that means something is going to happen, something good, something bad…
Toji watches the woman crush the curse's head with her bare hands. Then the curse is instantly set alight the moment it hits the ground, without a word, without a summon… Wow, he thinks, she must really be that good of a sorcerer.
The curse burns and screams, and she stares at it without as much as a grimace. She's used to this, he thinks, how interesting. He can see her face more clearly in the firelight, and thinks she's absolutely made for it, so he decides to make himself known then.
"That looks pretty hot there."
He steps forward, but she doesn't acknowledge him until he's close enough to see her fully. Her eyes are bright, almost blazing, with a power he's never seen before. She couldn't be a sorcerer, he thinks, she might be dressed as a human being, but she feels like a curse, like a fucking taint.
Worm tells him she's an in-betweener. Worm tells him to stay away from her because she's going to eat him alive.
Eat him, huh?
"You can see it," she comments plainly, "why?"
Is she an alien?
"That's what's called a curse," he summarizes, "shit crawling out from whatever pit in hell."
He looks at its burned corpse, watches as it turns to ash. It fucking stinks, he thinks. It's going to get in his lungs and his clothes, and it'll be a bitch to wash clean.
"You don't call them demons or spirits?" She pokes at the ashes with her shoe, "Hm, this Japan is different."
She probably is an alien, then, from some alternate dimension. Personally, he doesn't believe in any of that shit, but maybe it is. He looks at her poking the pile of ash. She's thinking. She's planning something in her head. Is she a jujutsu sorcerer or not? Is she an alien? Is she even human?
She tells him her name and continues, "I am what's called an exorcist."
So she's not a jujutsu sorcerer.
"I serve under the True Cross Order, but it seems I have… opened a wrong door."
He hasn't heard of any group like that. And what's that about opening the wrong door? Is she delusional?
"So I need to go back," she clears her throat as if he fully understands what she's saying, "and seeing as you are… similar to me, I require your help."
She's being polite on purpose, he thinks, no ordinary person would talk that way. Then again, maybe she is an alien trying to go back to the mothership after seeing how shitty it is on Earth.
She stares at him expecting an answer.
He scoffs, grunts. He's not getting involved with fucking aliens–
She continues staring at him, and it's not the kind he likes, it's the kind he hates. She continues staring at him like she expects him to say yes.
Worm tells him it's a bad idea. Worm tells him she's going to eat him alive. Worm tells him– Toji thinks it's a damn shame that she's so pretty.
"Me?"
"Are you not… You can see those things, so you must know how to handle them."
"Must"? Well, he doubts she's ever heard of him–she's a fucking alien who crushes curses with her bare hands and burns them to ash with just her eyes. She's no sorcerer and he isn't either; he's the fucking Sorcerer Killer. And what the hell is she here for, anyway? What's she doing in a back alley chasing curses and asking them questions… No, she's no curse. At least, not a full one. Worm would react differently if she was. But what was that Worm told him? That she's an in-betweener?
He narrows his eyes at her, "How can you tell?"
"Gut feeling," she shrugs, "so do you?"
He's the one asking questions here!
"What the hell are you, anyway?"
"I am a…" she hesitates, then exhales briskly through her nose, "nephilim is the term we use, half-human and half… demon."
"Bullshit," he bristles, "prove it."
Worm tells him it's a bad idea. Worm tells him she's dangerous, she'll eat him alive and swallow him whole–
Toji thinks it really is a damn shame she looks the way she does, all polished and professional, calm and in control. Part of him wonders, if she is just half-human, how she'd look, sound, and feel if–
"Hit me," she points taps a finger on the space above her jaw, "and give it everything you've got."
She's not just delusional, she's insane.
But he takes her up on it.
"It's gonna hurt," he rolls his shoulders back, "I'm going to mean it."
"I hope you do," she nods, smiling.
And that sends something down his spine, but Toji refuses to believe it's nervousness, considers it closer to arousal. So he doesn't have to hold back with her, huh? He fixes his stance. If she wants him to give it everything he's got, well, he isn't one to disappoint.
Inside him, Worm whimpers.
He moves to strike, just a quick jab. He doesn't want to hurt her too much.
One.
Two.
Three–