Chapter Text
The last of the rivaling yokai dropped onto the soil, its neck leaking maroon blood and their gurgling fading along with the life in its eyes. Its blood drips from the end of Sukuna’s sword and seeps into the ground below him as he stood before it.
Uraume quietly walks up to the man who was shaking the blood off his sword. In her hands was the body of a wolf yokai who Sukuna had killed today, its fur still soft and warm. “You did well, Master Sukuna,” she says, offering him the dead yokai, “The enemies are all gone, and now this town is under your domain.”
Sukuna raised his head, “Mine, huh? This puny town looks boring, nothing but houses and yokai insects crawling around trying to bite me.”
When he turns to her, his eyes immediately fixed to a large estate sitting on top of a hill, looming over the town like a gargoyle; stone-eyed and silent. He absentmindedly takes the wolf yokai from Uraume’s hands and wrapped it around his neck as a scarf. “The hell is that?” he says.
Uraume follows his sight to the estate, “Belongs to a human noblewoman, supposedly. Nothing about yokais as far as we know.”
When she looks to Sukuna again, he had a devilish grin forming on his face. He flicked the sword upward and let the flat rest against his shoulder. “Large home for a noblewoman, don’t you think?” The yokai leader starts to walk away, “send Tengu or something to look that over. I don't want to find those damn Kirin yokais hiding around my territory. ”
Uraume murmurs, “Certainly, master,” then falls in step behind him, casting one last glance at the estate before fixing her gaze on his feet.
—
The ache on her back radiated throughout her body, building up from the base of her spine to the back of her head. Cinderella massages there with a frown as her legs brought her up the stairs and into her room. She closed the door behind her with a sigh and looked around her measly room; a room that would fit a small bed, a washstand, a closet, and a large window that overlooked the forest, now darkened by the night. A small smile crosses her face as she remembers cleaning her room before the rest of the estate, leaving her free to relax now.
Cinderella untied her apron and hanged it on a loose board on the wall, then walked to her window sill to look over the edge of the trees. She squinted her eyes, then clearly saw the moving figures at one of the branches. “Hey!” She hissed at it. The figures stopped their motion and jumped towards her, landing on the window sill.
Under the moonlight, their figures are conspicuous: two small mice yokais, one of them with one eye in the middle of their face, just above their nose, while the other had two pitch black pair of round eyes. “Cinderella! You were gone the whole day!” The one-eyed exclaimed. They both clutched onto her sleeves.
“Jaq, Gus! I’m sorry I made you guys worry. Stepmother had me clean the entire house today, apparently a prince was interested in meeting Anastasia tomorrow.”
Gus, the yokai with the black round eyes, tilted his tiny head, “Anastasia? Are you sure?”, meanwhile Jaq rolled his eye, “There is no way that lady has someone who wants her. Not less a prince!”
Cinderella starts to untie her blonde hair, combing it to the side as she leaned against the wall. The two mice jumped down from the window and started walking towards the washstand, “I heard he came from a kingdom far away from here,” Cinderella trailed off, looking towards the forest that stretches from the estate to the town beyond, “where there was sand instead of trees. Where it’s blazing hot during the day, and chilly at night. I wonder what that’s like.”
The two yokais reached the basin, Jaq uses the water to wash his face while Gus cupped his hands together to drink the water. Jaq turns to Cinderella, “I heard about a place like that, I think. Hey Gus, was it cousin Ben that had a friend from that sand place?”
Gus nodded vehemently, “Yes! Yes! Cousin Ben. I think he called it a pervert.”
Cinderella snaps her head towards him, her eyes wide. Jaq splashes the water at Gus, “It’s desert, you idiot. Where the hells did you learn pervert from?”
The black-eyed yokai shook the water from his body, “Cousin Ben! But I think he told me that for something else.”
Cinderella fought back a giggle and rolled her eyes, continuing to comb her hair and look out the window. She wonders if there is any prince like that out there for her, or anyone really, just someone to take her away from this place. Supposedly, she could very well pack all of her things and run away, especially since father had left some money for her before he passed. She doesn’t really know why she still hasn’t left. Perhaps it was sentiment, her clinging onto the memories of her childhood inside these walls. Perhaps it’s the hope that one day she would win stepmother’s heart and they could live happily together in the estate. Perhaps it is something else.
Somehow, Jaq and Gus had taken the grapes that Cinderella had stashed inside the pocket of her apron, and they start to walk back towards the window sill.
“…and that brawny yokai man from earlier today? Nasty stuff.” said Jaq to his friend.
Gus plops a grape into his mouth, “did you see him snapping Lucifer’s neck? Like a twig!”
Jaq twists his face in discomfort, “you saw that…?”
The other yokai nods, “saw with my own two big eyes. I was so scared, I ran out of there while he was distracted by the others.”
Cinderella regards them, her eyebrows shot up at the conversation they’re having, “Lucifer? The panther?”. She has seen the yokai maybe once or twice from afar. They were quite big in size, had long canine teeth, and had two tails with little blue flames lit at the ends. They had been in the same clan as Jaq and Gus but were a bit of a bully, often taunting them when they’re bored. Hearing that something had killed them was frightening, given that Lucifer was not a weak yokai.
The one-eyed mice shivered where he sits at the window sill, “Yeah. He was a leader, I think, from the clan at the next town over. He passed by and had a brawl with one of our own. I think Master Kirin told others to bring his head to him, but that man killed Master Kirin before anyone could touch him.”
Cinderella sits on the floor to level herself with them, looking at them in trepidation. A yokai like that seems very horrifying to have killed Master Kirin, the powerful horse yokai who was the supreme commander of the clan that ruled this town.
Gus lifted his robe and revealed a large scar on the side of his torso. “He didn't really came at me, but his blows were so strong that just a little bit of it got me a big scratch here.”
“Gus! You should’ve told me!” Cinderella exclaimed, holding his robe up to examine the scar. It was dark red and fresh, as if it hasn’t healed that much yet. “Cinderelly, I’m okay,” the mice giggled endearingly.
Nevertheless, she hovers her palm over it and closed her eyes. The two mice watched her as a glowing light starts to appear in Gus' skin, sealing the scar so now only fur covers the area. When it was fully closed, Cinderella drops her hand and inspects it again.
“Whew, that always feels weird,” Gus says lightly. Jaq steps closer to him and rubs his friend's belly with his tiny hand and smiles, “Oh, but look! It’s not there anymore. As expected from the great healer.”
Cinderella was born into a lineage of supernatural healers on her mother’s side, a family long revered and protected by the people they served. Their powers had mended everyone from a child's scraped knee to wounds of soldiers returning from war. It was this rare gift that led to her mother’s arranged marriage to Cinderella’s father, a nobleman whose influence matched the family’s value.
Though she was her daughter, Cinderella’s memories of her mother were mostly a blur. In her early childhood, her mother had been warm, but that affection faded as Cinderella grew older. By the time she reached her teenage years, the age when her healing abilities were expected to awaken, her mother became restless and consumed by worry. The longer Cinderella’s powers failed to manifest, the more anxious her mother grew, her behavior sharpening into obsession. Much of it, Cinderella suspected, was fueled by her father’s mounting expectations and quiet pressure.
Then, one morning, her mother was simply gone. She had taken a horse and ridden into the forest, where she fell from a cliff and died. Cinderella never saw her body when it was recovered, only the bloodstained cloth that had been wrapped around her, offered as proof. Not long after, her father married his pregnant mistress, Lady Tremaine, who became Cinderella’s stepmother. They soon had Drizella and Anastasia, and with them, Cinderella’s former life quietly disappeared. Her father never spoke of his first wife again, nor of the healing powers Cinderella had once been promised. It was as if both had been erased from his mind. Only after his sudden death from a heart attack did Cinderella’s powers finally awakened. She was twenty one years old.
She gives the two mice a sad smile, “Where is he now? The yokai that killed Master Kirin. What has become of the clan here then?”
Jaq glanced nervously outside the window, “If the supreme commander is killed by a leader of a different clan, then that leader rules over the clan. I think he’s still roaming around out there, hunting the creatures that don't bow to him, waiting for the rest of his people to come here. It’s only a matter of time before we have to answer to him too.”
She darts her eyes at her fingers, which Gus has started to caress, “don’t worry Cinderelly, he won’t hurt you.”
“I don’t care if I get hurt or not. You guys are my friends, and if anything happens to you, I’ll be devastated.”
Just then, a familiar screechy voice echoes from somewhere far. Cinderella and the mice paused to see if they heard it again, and then the voice calls out right after—this time clearer: “Cinderella! Come down here!”
It was stepmother’s voice.
“Alright, I need to go,” Cinderella stood up, taking her apron and wrapping it around her waist, “stepmother probably wanted to tell me where to put the flower arrangements for tomorrow.”
“Don’t tire yourself, Cinderelly!” Jaq called out to her. Before she walked out, Cinderella wiggled her fingers at them as a small gesture to say goodbye. Then, she closed the door behind her, leaving the two yokais in the window sill of the woman’s bedroom. They looked at each other.
“Well, Gus. I guess now we got to meet with the others to greet the new supreme commander,” Jaq said softly. He starts to hop down onto the tree branch across the window with Gus following close by.
—
The prince that visited the estate was incredibly handsome, with a dashing smile and tanned skin the made his entire presence glow. He wore a loose white and gold attire with intricate patterns in his sleeves, and a purple robe hanging by his shoulders that looked expensive. His crown was not the headdress that Cinderella was used to seeing, but it was a big white cloth they call a turban, with jewels and feathers decorating it. This prince was called Prince Ali, and Cinderella couldn't help but to blush at the sight of him.
It was clear that she wasn’t the only one who was in awe at his appearance because she glanced at the house helpers standing next to her, and they failed miserably at hiding their giddy looks. She rolled her eyes affectionately and brought her focus back to the people in front of her.
“Prince Ali!" stepmother exclaimed, her voice laced with a sweet, feminine tone, "Such a pleasure to finally meet you. I trust your journey here was not too arduous?”
The prince nodded his head towards her, “It was indeed a distance, but my excitement to meet Anastasia has kept me company on my journey here.”
From beside her, Cinderella could hear the helpers sigh in admiration. She nudged at them to quiet them down.
They can’t be blamed though. They haven’t seen a suitor that was particularly elegant, rich, and as good-looking as this one since the girls were of age. Not to mention one that was from a country worlds away from here. Stepmother’s connections were surprisingly wide.
“Oh Prince Ali, you have such a way with words,” Anastasia giggled, her red curled hair bouncing on her shoulders as she moved to him, placing her hand on his. He lifts it up to give a small kiss on her knuckle.
“Come, let us sit at the drawing room,” stepmother said happily, “Cinderella? Fetch us some tea.”
Cinderella curtsied, "yes ma’am”. She walked to the kitchen to start brewing the tea for them.
—
When Karasu Tengu, the head of the crow yokais, flew down to the leader's manor that night, the man had already started unwinding in the seat that the previous leader had claimed, which was on the raised floor across the sliding entrance door of the main area. On either side of him, a long line of his subordinates sit quietly as Karasu Tengu walked directly towards the supreme leader. When he was at a shorter distance away from him, Tengu bowed, “Supreme leader Sukuna, I’ve come to share information about the estate as requested.”
In front of him, Sukuna sits with one knee raised to chest-level while the other tucks sideways underneath it. His elbow rested on his tucked leg, propped up so that his head would lean against his fisted hand. “And what have you found, Tengu?”
The yokai raised his head but kept his gaze low, somewhere near Sukuna’s feet. “It belongs to the Tremaine family. The patriarch passed away years ago, and it is now managed by his second wife, Lady Tremaine.”
Sukuna had heard of the family once or twice before. The late lord was a famous human nobleman who hoarded riches and had connections that allowed money flow to him like waterfall. There were rumors that his greed stretched to sorcery; he married his first wife to bring supernatural power into the family. Of course, it was all obvious fabrication meant to awe humans. Not that it really mattered to Sukuna, he didn’t deal in their affairs. He simply liked the view the nobleman's estate must have had from the hill.
And to also rule out potential enemy hideouts. That place is big enough for it.
“The lady lives with her daughters, Drizella and Anastasia, both blood-related to the lord. I believe one of her servants is her step-daughter, Cinderella her name was, I was unsure if she is related to the Lord."
Sukuna waved his hand in the air in a dismissive gesture, "Yeah, yeah, human noblewomen. Anything about hideouts there?"
The crow shook his head, his gaze still downward, "My team and I have swept through the estate, nothing of that nature was found. However, we have captured two yokais that had lingered in one of the rooms there."
He clicked his tongue loudly, and the door of the room slid open to two larger crow yokais holding a significantly smaller yokai in each. mice. One had two void-like eyes while the other had only one normal-looking eye. Their expression gave way to their emotions: utter anxiety and terror as they are carried further into the room, their teeth chattering. Sukuna lifted his eyebrow in a mix of unimpressiveness and disappointment.
Karasu Tengu stood up and shifted to the side to give way to the two mice yokais, the larger crows dropping them onto the floor right in front of Sukuna. "Was it just these two?" the supreme leader voiced in a monotone. Karasu Tengu nodded, "Yes, my lord."
The supreme leader leaned forward, his raised knee now tucked downwards so he was now sitting cross-legged. Under his gaze, the two mice shivered in fear, and they slowly leaned forward into a bow. "I've seen you. You're both clan members of that puny Kirin."
The mention of their former leader's name had the mice flinch, and in unison they shakily replied: "Y-yes, lord S-S-S-Su—"
Sukuna rolled his eyes. "Sukuna," he said sternly, earning a more obvious flinch from them. He was pretty sure one of them had urinated slightly.
"L-lord Sukuna," the one with the one eye said, "please forgive us. We were just idling, didn't do much. I-I assure you that we bow to you now as our supreme leader."
They watched as Sukuna began to stretch his torso back, leaning with his hands propping him up. He looks at them with wicked eyes, "There isn't much space in my new clan, you know. I've already come from such a big one already, all these yokais Kirin has left me are such a pain to straighten them out. And it's hard to trust the ones who were oh so loyal to that damn horse."
A smirk grows on his face, "But I do love a good meal. I can just turn you two into my little snack pieces."
Hearing that, the mice whimpered and visibly shook in place. Sukuna barked a laugh as the one with the two eyes started to leak onto the ground, "Unbelievable! Soiling on the new floor! Get up and clean that before I step on you."
As the mouse yokai, as best as he can, stood up to start cleaning, Sukuna's expression dropped. Suddenly, he leaned forward from his position, taking a closer look at him from where he sits. Confirming his sights, Sukuna held up his hand. "Do not move, mouse."
Both mouse froze on the spot, looking up at him to anticipate further instructions. The two-eyed mouse followed Sukuna's gaze to his belly where his clothing had slightly lifted. There doesn't seem to be anything on him as far as he could see.
"You…" Sukuna started, pointing at the mouse's belly as his eye twitched, "…were healed?"
Everyone in the room, including Karasu Tengu, gasped slightly and turned to the mouse. He looked from his belly to Sukuna, an unreadable expression in his face. Meanwhile, his friend beside him had slumped slightly, his face paler now. How could the supreme leader tell that Gus was healed by sorcery? As far as he knew, Cinderella hadn’t left a mark on him.
Oh no. Cinderella.
Jaq finds his mouth dried up, unable to spring into action and voice an excuse, a distraction, something that he would normally have no problem initiating. But this was the new supreme leader, the one that killed Master Kirin, the one that killed a lot of his own. This man could end his life in the most terrifying ways.
It was Gus who then spoke up, "Y-yes my lord. We have a friend, you see. She has this sorceric hands that could close up any wounds and heal us."
Of course Gus couldn't make up a lie. He wasn't like Jaq, not even the slightest bit manipulative unless Jaq pushed him so. The one-eyed mice craned his head to Gus, his eyes wide in disbelief, his jaws slack. Sukuna is going to kill and eat her.
"You fools! You dare conceal this information from us?!" the crow yokai hissed at them.
Sukuna's lips twisted into a crooked smile, "A friend, huh? And who is this friend with such powers?"
This time, Gus turned to Jaq, who immediately looked away from him. He couldn't be angry at him; there was no way to get out of the situation other than telling the truth. It really surprised him that the supreme leader could see something was healed on Gus. Perhaps Cinderella's powers had always left a trace of some kind whenever she uses them to heal others. Something that was unnoticeable to most, discernible for the powerful like Sukuna.
"Forgive us, m-my lord. We did not intend on hiding anything from you, we just…" Jaq picks the skin in his fingers, "O-our friend who healed him is not a yokai, we were going to tell you later after you have settled in."
It was not the entire truth, he never intended for Sukuna to know. Jaq had hoped that he and Gus could get away with it, wanting to protect Cinderella from the horrors of the yokai world; ever so dangerous, so violent than the human world. Cinderella was someone who fixed things rather than broke them, someone this world would devour if given the chance. She did not deserve to see it, especially not someone like Sukuna, who could end her life in less than a second.
Karasu Tengu let out a bitter chuckle, "Surely you jest. A healer who is not a yokai? What, a human healer then?"
Jaq nodded defeatedly, "Yes. She is a human who has the hands of a healer."
"What is her name, mouse?" Sukuna pressed.
Jaq lifted his head, only very slightly, just enough for his face to be visible to the supreme commander. He finds himself blurting: "It's Cinderella, my lord."
—
That night, Cinderella sat on a chair near the window of her room, a bundle of wool on her lap as she knitted a grey blanket. It was a wool that she had bought from the market a few days ago while she was sent to buy fresh fruits for stepmother. She had planned on knitting a blanket to have more warmth in her bed before the upcoming winter.
Prince Ali had a couple weeks left here before he had to decide whether he would marry Anastasia, and then bring her back to his kingdom far away after he does marry her. Cinderella couldn't help but admit that she would miss her if she does marry and leave as she was the kindest out of all of them. Anastasia would, as Cinderella recalls, often turn a blind eye on her whenever stepmother mistreated her. But then whenever stepmother leaves, it was Anastasia who would tend to the redness on her cheek after she was slapped in the face, or secretly shared her dinner after stepmother threw her's away. Whenever she was hurt, even if she had the means to heal herself, Cinderella would welcome Anastasia's helping hand. If she decides to leave, Cinderella would just be left with Drizella, who was unfortunately more similar to stepmother in temperament and personality, and who she never really became close to.
Cinderella sighed and held her chin on the palm of her hand as her elbow sat on the windowsill. She looked ahead, beyond the horizon of trees, where everything seems to be illuminated by the moonlight above. Light wind breezed through the trees, making their leaves and branches dance together. She supposed that she was quite content about looking outside her window and gazing nature this way, but it would be a lot more nicer if she could go wherever she wanted and not have to worry about stepmother banning her from coming back to the estate if she did snuck out. Cinderella had promised more to herself than to her late parents that she would not abandon the estate unless she had found a new home.
She snorted. A new home, how odd. From how caged her life is, it would be unlikely that she would see that sort of changes in her lifetime. She hasn't met that many suitors, and those who became a little interested in her were all shut down by stepmother. Why that is, she was unsure, but she doesn't really delve into what sort of plans stepmother has for her. Perhaps it was to have her become forever unmarried with no children, and to care for the estate for the rest of her life. Cinderella tries not to think about it.
Jaq and Gus did not come to visit her that night, and although she understood that it was probably because they were following orders from the new yokai leader, the anxiety still sat at the bottom of her stomach. Jaq and Gus weren’t fighters, so what could the leader possibly need from them? Entertainment? Household work? She had hoped it was something as simple, but hearing about the leader’s destructive behaviors, he might not even be so merciful towards little yokais like them.
Before she realized it, her hand never returned to her knitting, opted for twisting and pulling on the yarn of wool on her lap. Her gaze was blank and looked at somewhere ahead. Maybe that was why she had failed to notice the figure standing a few paces from her, watching.
“Such a sad expression for a pretty face.”
Instinctively, Cinderella gasped and jumped out of her seat, gripping one of the knitting needles in her hand. Her eyes widen at the sight of a large, tall man leaning against her bedroom wall, his arms crossed in a relaxed manner. The man had light pink hair and wore a white-blue robe that would normally stand out and attracted attention, but the darkness of her room made it look dull almost shadow-like. What chilled her to the bone was the amount of black markings this man had, from his face all the way down to his arms. He looked like he was a part of a crime syndicate.
"H-how did you get in here?" Cinderella asked, genuine shock laced in her tone.
He tilted his head slightly, "Would you believe me if I said that I entered through your front door?"
She glanced at her bedroom door, half calculating if she could sprint towards it before he could catch her, and half wondering how none of the guards saw him enter. "That's impossible. There's a lot of guards around here. You came from my window, o-or something… But I would've noticed before I sat down here," she said to herself finally.
She flinched when he walked to the other side of her room, looking at the state of her ceiling and walls, "A quaint room," he said, "I would have thought this a servant’s quarters instead of a bedroom for a lord's daughter."
How did he know that? No one outside the household could have known. Is he threatening her? "What do you want? Money?" she blurted, holding her tone steady, "I'm the wrong person to come to. I have nothing on me, and if you did anything to me, my stepmother would not care."
It was true. As far as she knows, she was expendable to the lady. Stepmother would rather leave her to die than to relinquish her riches or the estate, or to risk Anastasia and Drizella into something like this.
The large man, however, frowned at her like she had mocked him. "Do I look like the kinda person that needed that shit? I can get everything and more without that."
Cinderella's scowled in annoyance. Arrogant people were some of the types of people she didn't like. Then, his words began to sink in her, and she felt blood draining from her head. If that was not he was after, then what…
"Then what do you want? Why are you here?" she asked nervously, her hand that held the needle drawing closer to her body as if preparing for when the man decides to pounce at her. She watched his lips turned into a slight grin, and then he disappeared into the air.
Cinderella's whole body tenses, shifting into something like a fighting stance while her eyes dart around the room to search for him. He's gone. What was he? A ghost? A yokai?
Suddenly, Cinderella felt an arm wrap tightly around her torso, a looming shadow towered from behind her. "Why I'm here? I came to see you from up close, Cinderella," the man replied with venom in his voice.
Whether it was from the sound of her name from the man’s voice or the sudden arm around her, Cinderella immediately reacted by thrashing to break free, the hand clutching the knitting needle swung wildly at him. At some point she felt the needle scrape against something, but with her eyes squeezed shut and her focus split between yelping and flailing, she couldn’t tell if it had scratched him.
When she felt the arm letting her go, she stumbled forwards and opened her eyes. Looking behind her, the man was still standing there, but he seemed to be focused on his forearm, who he had lifted up to his face. Cinderella gasped when she saw bleeding there, her knitting needle dropping from her hand and clattering onto the wooden floor.
"Ah, see what you've done?" he said lightly with a frown, shoving his bloodied forearm at her direction, "you hurt me."
Without thinking, she held out to hold his forearm to inspect the scratch. It was actually quite big, not deep enough that he was bleeding profusely, but just enough that the blood glints from the wound. "I didn't know it was that sharp. I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, failing to notice the way the man looked at her with a teasing smile. "I promise there wasn't anything poisonous on that, it was just for my knitting…"
The man's expression turned into intrigue as she starts to sink to the floor, pulling his forearm with her to signal him to follow her. He does so, coming down to sit on the floor next to her with his legs crossed. His eyes dart back and forth from Cinderella's face to his wound, watching to see what she does next.
Meanwhile, Cinderella was inspecting the wound, thinking whether she should clean it with water and wrap a bandage around it, or… use her healing powers. She pulled back slightly, hoping that the man didn't have any secret mind-reading powers up his sleeves.
"It hurts, Cinderella. Are you sure there wasn't any poison on that?" the man wailed dramatically, "How am I supposed to leave now? I have a lot of enemies out there you know, and I won't be able to fight them off with my arm looking like this."
Cinderella almost rolled her eyes, but decided to shoot an unimpressed look instead. "I'm sure you've had worse injuries if you've made a lot of enemies."
The man eyed her, seeing that Cinderella had finally looked at him properly, the fear absent this time. "Nothing hurts more than getting injured by pretty women striking you."
Cinderella's hands released his forearm, but he doesn't move away. She leaned back and looked away out of embarrassment. "Seriously… Did you need something from me? And how did you—" she gestures her hand at him, "how did you do that? Coming up from behind me like that. Was that how you got in here?"
He leaned back as well, taking a look at her as a whole, "I'm a yokai. I could make myself invisible to you humans if I wanted to."
A yokai. So he was like Jaq and Gus. She has never seen a yokai that looked this human before, she would always assume they looked like foreign mythical creatures or closer to animals if anything. Although, that would explain all the black markings on his face and body, and if she really paid attention, the smaller pair of eyes he had on his cheekbone, just underneath where his red humanly eyes are. It was odd, she thought they were avoidant towards humans, with little Jaq and Gus being the exception. Even then it took the mice some time to be comfortable being near Cinderella when they first met.
And now, this big yokai is sitting next to her seemingly without a care in the world.
"You see, I'm not from around here," the man started offhandedly, "not sure if you've heard, but the supreme leader of this town is dead, and so I came here with the rest of my clan to take over."
Cinderella furrowed her brows, but he continued. "One of… our yokais has told me they come to this place often. It was such a big estate, I was curious to know what made it so interesting to them. That's when I found you," he grazed the back of his finger to the side of her face, just barely touching, "a wildflower among roses."
"You know Jaq and Gus?!" Cinderella asked loudly, her eyes gleaming with wonder that took the yokai man by surprise, "they're my good friends! I'm glad that you got along with them."
His lips twitched upwards, holding back a laugh that threatened to burst out. It wasn't that long ago that he had terrorized those mice. "Yes… We are acquainted."
Cinderella visibly relaxes. "It doesn’t seem like your clans are having too much trouble coming together. After the new supreme leader took over, I was worried there might be hard feelings. I was especially concerned about Jaq and Gus, they never liked fighting to begin with."
"Oh, so you have heard about the supreme leader. What are your thoughts on him?" he asks.
When he sees her retracting slightly, he adds: "I won’t tell him. You’re not yokai, so you’re safe…"
… For now. In truth, he wouldn't hesitate to slice open anyone who gets in his way, yokai or not. It just so happens that humans were never really in the way of his path; it would have been more bothersome to kill them. Humans, if anything, were very particular about investigating deaths unlike yokais and other beings, and a violent death that is not from their own kind would raise hell of an alarm. They would search through endlessly, a pain in the ass to deal with.
"Okay…" Cinderella voiced slowly, "I don't know much about him other than that he's ruthless. That he killed the previous leader, Master Kirin, before anyone else could touch him."
He nodded along as she described him, feeling a small growth of pride blooming in his chest. At least those mice didn't sully his reputation.
"He seems frightening from the way Jaq and Gus described him. He attacked some yokais, and I guess one of his strikes hit Gus in the belly. Good thing he came to me, I healed him and closed the wound right then and there."
When Cinderella realized what she had said, she slapped a palm over her mouth and looked at the yokai man. His expression did not change, as if what she said wasn't novel to him. "Healed huh?" he remarked. Cinderella glowered at him, "is this why you came here? To see if it was true or not?"
The yokai chuckled, hand reaching out to her but she shoves it away, "don't touch me! I can't believe those two would tell anyone about it!"
He crosses his arms, irritated at being shoved. "I told you we were acquaintances , didn't I?"
She huffs a breath, crossing her arms as well, "I just… It's something I have to keep a secret about. Otherwise people will come for me, or use me in ways that would scare me."
In the past, her mother had told her about the healing powers that came from her family. It was a power passed down from generations to generations, a power that was sought after by people. Some were raised to the throne, some became rich from their healing services, but all of them ultimately came at a bigger risk of being targeted. Cinderella's mother had told her stories about the murders, the abductions, and all the consequences of harboring this healing power. It was why, in a way, Cinderella had been relieved to find that the powers had not manifested when she was of age, despite her parents' disappointment. By the time she found her powers, both of her parents were gone, and she had been forgotten by almost everyone as the daughter from that special family. Maybe this is why she felt safer being kept as a servant in the household than to flee into the world. In a way, it was like sheltering under the protection of stepmother.
"They won't lay a finger on you, I'll make sure of that."
Cinderella looked up at the yokai man, who was now leaning more forward towards her. The proximity made her ears and neck warm, and she distracted herself by grabbing his injured forearm close to her. She hovers her hand over the wound, a warm glow lightening her palm and fingertips. The man relaxed under her touch and watched intently as his skin started to move, stitching itself back together and then closing completely. When she was done, the light from her hand faded away, and the man pulled his forearm up to him, tracing over where the wound was a few seconds ago. Visibly, his skin looked like what it was before it got wounded, but then he could see trails of magic flowing out of his skin like faint smoke.
"Feeling better?" she asked, her hands still in the air, her blue eyes scanning him for anything otherwise. The man rubbed on his forearm, staring into her with an expression she couldn't really decipher. She decided that it was a good sign.
Before either of them could speak again, they both heard thuds of footsteps and muffled talking from the direction of her door. It was odd that there were people awake at his hour. Then, a familiar voice of a man announced, "There is a yokai near here, I'm sure of it. I can sense them!"
Prince Ali.
"Who is that punk?" the yokai man muttered, but Cinderella had already jumped to her feet and was now pulling at the man's heavy arm to get him to stand up as well. "It's the prince! You have to go before he finds you!"
He stands up next to her, tugging sharply at her tunic near her shoulder, "Oi, are you engaged or something?"
Cinderella swats his hand away, looking up at him, "No! He's marrying my stepsister."
Hearing that, the man hummed to himself. "Do you belong to anyone, then?"
The question took Cinderella aback, the same heat from before creeping in her ears and neck. She goes to push the yokai man by the chest towards the window, "That's none of your concern. Now, go."
He walked backwards, allowing Cinderella to push him. Just before his back reached the windowsill, the man halted himself. He tipped her chin by his finger to crane her face up towards him. He was too close like this, especially for someone she had just met. "Answer me."
She doesn't back down this time, "and if I say yes?"
"I'll kill him."
She slapped his chest as he dropped his hand, "Don't be killing people for selfish reasons like that!" she fumed, her brows furrowed in irritation. He threw his head back and cackled, "Hah! I'll probably kill him just for the fun of it anyway."
The sounds of footsteps, now nearer than before, caused both Cinderella and the man to look towards the door. "Prince Ali, surely this yokai wouldn't be in the servant's quarters?" a muffled voice of a woman said. Anastasia.
"They could be anywhere. Those monsters wouldn't care if it was the master of the house or a servant, all they do is kill," Prince Ali spat.
"Well, he's not wrong," the yokai man responded as Cinderella continued pushing him. He finally stepped up to the windowsill, ducking his head so that he doesn't bump into the top part of the window. From this height, he overshadowed her with glowing eyes, something that would have petrified her if this is was how they first met. Now, she had a feeling he wasn't going to be dangerous to her anymore.
Cinderella shifted on her feet from side to side, not exactly sure on how to bid him goodbye. Afterwards, she remembered something that they had painfully overlooked during their whole encounter.
"What is your name anyway?"
It came out like a mumble, but the man heard it all the same. A cocky grin played on his lips. He crouched down to her level, reaching out to take a strand of blonde hair from the side of her head. He twirled it around his finger, "Sukuna."
Cinderella lets him play with the strand of hair. "Sukuna," she repeated. He goes to swipe a thumb over the bottom of her lips, "It sounds sweet on your lips. Makes me want to hear it more."
Before she could counter him, he rose to his feet and turned away. His gaze lingered on the full moon overhead before he glanced back to her. “This will not be the last time I see you, Cinderella.”
She watched as he leapt from the window, expecting him to plummet to the ground. Instead, he descended slowly, almost floating down, his clothes and hair caught in the wind, until his form fizzled into nothing. Just as it had earlier.
Cinderella kept her eyes at where she had last saw him disappear, even as she heard a loud knock on her door. "Cinderella! It's Anastasia, we need to check your room! Prince Ali thinks he saw a yokai."
She called out with something like a "come in!" while she straightened her things, pocketing the knitting needle that still had a little bit of blood on it. Anastasia came in before Prince Ali, the latter immediately scanning the room wildly. He moved past Cinderella and went to the window, looking to see anything out of the ordinary there.
"A yokai, you said?" Cinderella asked innocently as Anastasia stood next to her. "I believe so. Prince Ali said he deals with yokais in his kingdom, apparently they roam around like pests."
When the prince decided that there was nothing outside, he turned around with a sigh while rubbing his nape, "I was worried because the presence felt very strong all of a sudden. Stronger than any of the yokais I dealt with at home. Typically, we would immediately vacate and summon yokai exterminators for these."
Yokai exterminators? Interesting, Cinderella thought. For as long as she lived here, yokais were largely ignored by people, treated no more than mythical beings and characters in books. Some believed them to be real, most do not. Cinderella would have been a skeptic as well if it were not for Jaq and Gus. It seems that yokais in this part of the world were more mindful about their activities, to not let it bleed into human territory. In other parts of the world, those boundaries didn’t appear to hold as firmly.
"I haven't seen anything particularly alerting, your highness. I was just knitting by the opened window. Perhaps something had passed by outside?" Cinderella reasoned. Anastasia stepped in, placing a hand on his arm, "or you're just tired, my prince. It is quite late."
He laid his hand on top of hers, shaking his head slightly, “I would hope so. If nothing seems unusual, then it should be fine for now. I’m not sensing it at the moment.”
Both Anastasia and the prince started walking out hand-in-hand, with Cinderella following to close the door behind them. She walked back to window, peering out to see if Sukuna was still there. After a few seconds, she stifled a yawn, her body telling her that it was time for bed. And so, she closed the window and pulled the curtains over it.
—
The night was beginning to end, indicated by the sky becoming brighter and brighter. Sukuna sat on the wooden floor of the terrace, an empty bottle of sake in front of his feet and a priceless smoking pipe twirling at the base of his fingers. He had been staring blankly in front of him, from the sky to the gardens, drowned in his own thoughts. When the first light of the sun peaked through the horizon and shined at his eyes, he cursed to himself. He placed the smoking pipe down next to him. "Didn’t get a single puff last night," he mumbled at the pipe. He pressed his fingers at the bridge of his nose, his mouth twitching upwards into a crooked smile.
"Already she has consumed me. That damned healer."
It was ironic. He had come to her room that night to take and eat her; a plan to obtain her powers for himself. Even if the plan didn't end up working, it would have been a meal for him nonetheless. But the first sight of her unraveled his plans completely, an impulse that still baffled him. He couldn't decide if he should be enraged or not.
Sukuna straightened his back and looked at his forearm, tracing the ghost of his scar with his finger. “How annoying. I want to see that woman again,” he finally said.