Chapter Text
‘
Is it true your eyes glow in the dark?’
The words had come when they’d stopped in a town, village so small that they hadn’t needed a pass or bribe to slip over the walls and walk right in. Irritation blossomed in an itch at the back of their nape and they’d whipped around, snarl on their lips at the familiar voice and yet they found no one there. Rationally, it had only been a kid interested in the colour of their irises, and yet they knew.
Knew what it was.
Mizu had kept quiet as they’d stumbled from stall to stall, picking over which winter tomato was the least rotten; the stitches on their side and shoulder and thigh and
everywhere, really, who were they kidding?
- screaming in protest.
‘
Is it true you see like a cat?’
The hair on the back of their neck bristled with fear. Mizu was desperate to tamp it.
Of course it wasn’t. Their eyes couldn’t glow, couldn’t see farther than most, couldn’t change the colour of their iris to mimic the Onryo many feared so. The most the blue eyes they
hated
so much could do for them was give them a beating, and that was even with their glasses.
‘
Can your glare turn people to ice?’
They turned, fear and nervousness melting to irritation at her persistence. “Will you
stop that?”
The anger sizzled out as they glanced not the person they’d expected, but a crowd of confused and slightly scared market-goers. Mizu faltered, embarrassment tinting their face yet they still scowled enough to make the onlookers turn.
A giggle pressed at the edge of their skull, synthetic and fake and yet they knew what she was laughing at. Apparently dying had done something to Kinuyo’s deafness. (
Deep down, they knew she couldn’t hear anything but them
.) “
Shut up,”
They whispered, turning to stalk further into the town in search of a better meal. Something warm, filling and quite possibly
cheap
. The girl didn’t answer, but Mizu had the distinct impression that she was beside them, black hair curling gently about her neck.
They couldn’t put up with this.
As it turned out, they were right.
Kinuyo had been following them, invisible to both their eye and thankfully the general public right up until they’d shut the door to their room; pale little girl sitting on the edge of their futon like she’d been the one to pay the man at the front.
‘
You could’ve paid him,’
She whispered, fingers swiping across the air in medial terms yet they knew what was said. Didn’t have the choice. Knew anyway. Pay was such a trivial term, wrong for what they’d done; which involved threatening the gentleman at the counter until he coughed up a room for the night. “
No vacancy,”
He’d sneered, but they’d known anyway.
Mizu didn’t pay.
“He didn’t deserve it. Will you get off my futon and leave ?” They grit their teeth as the girl laughed, voice soft with the sound of childish laughter. She couldn’t of been more than a teen. ‘
Nope.’
The end of the word popped, despite her lack of lips and they resisted the urge to strangle her with the fear of that continuous pain. Kinuyo had learned, despite speaking more than before, to quiet her voice.
The ache in their teeth had died with her loudness, and for that they were thankful. “
Why
.” Mizu hissed, joints aching for the hilt of their katana with that familiar need to
end.
Kinuyo only shrugged, a frown pursing her lips like it was something she hadn’t thought of. ‘
Bound.’
They had to be going insane.
“Then get off my futon.”
She didn’t hesitate. ‘
No.’
Their brow furrowed, and she kicked her legs back and forth, childish and annoying. It reminded them of their time with Swordmaster, almost carefree. Almost. ‘
You killed me. I get this.’
Mizu slept on the floor that night, to the distress of their aching spine.