Chapter Text
When En came for her, it was easy. There was no conflict, no fanfare or tears. It just happened. Noi's parents didn't suspect a thing, why would they? What kind of person abducted their own cousin? En was exactly that sort of person.
Soothing their worries with pretty words and firm reassurances, En managed to stroll into his Aunt and Uncle's house for a family lunch then leave with their only child in tow. It would be good for her, he said, a small holiday to sightsee around the sorcerer's realm. They had believed him, even in En's awkward teenage years he was extremely charismatic; He always got what he wanted.
And what he wanted was a magic user with healing smoke as potent as Noi's. He had searched far and wide, finding no one as capable as she, so he took her with him.
Despite being a small child, she could heal the most life-threatening of wounds with a quick puff of dense smoke. In hindsight, she was probably lucky that En managed to get to her first and not some smoke harvesters.
En held Noi on his hip as they crested the hill just behind her parent's house and then he called for the Devil. She had never seen a Devil this close before, she craned her neck and fisted her little hands into their robes as they loomed over the pair, tongue lashing.
"Make them forget."
The Devil agreed with a catch, if Noi strained her memory she could remember their rasping voice and saliva dripping onto her hands with how eagerly they nodded. They chattered on about a weird exam using big words that Noi didn't understand and En agreed with a solemn nod. With a click of their clawed fingers, she felt a slight itch at the back of her mind and wondered who the house in the distance belonged to. Her parents forgot, Noi nearly did but she could remember the smell of her mother's blouse and the way her father's hand felt as he ruffled her hair. She didn't know their names or faces and as far as En was concerned, he was her only family now. They wouldn't come for a child they couldn't remember.
Noi twisted in his grasp to look back at the house, frowning as she felt the burn of tears in her eyes but confused when they never came. The sorrow was detached and distant as they walked away. En was clearly expecting more of a fuss as he rubbed her back, the most affectionate he had ever and would ever be with Noi.
Were it not in such worrying circumstances, she might have enjoyed her first ever broom ride. They shot across the sky and landed in a faraway town on top of a humble base of sorts. Noi had never been a shy girl but the numbness clouding her body had her clinging to En as they entered a room full of strangers.
He grunted as her little nails dug into his neck and sat her down in a free chair then disappeared out of the room.
Noi tried her best not to panic, clenching her tiny fists and glaring at a man with red facial markings who smiled across at her, his long hair sweeping across his shoulders.
"Hey there, you must be En's Noi." He reached over with a hand posed to shake hers.
Noi smacked it away and harrumphed. "I'm not En's! I'm just Noi."
He accepted the rejection and snorted at her sour expression. "Alright, alright, Just Noi. I'm Tenjin."
"No! Not Just Noi! My name is Noi! I thought adults were supposed to be smart." She narrowed her eyes at Tenjin as he laughed at her.
"Aren't you a little Devil?" Tenjin snorted as she blew a raspberry at him.
"You look like En!" She declared with all the unshakable uncertainty of a child.
Tenjin's eyes widened and he stammered. "Like En-san? What makes you say that, Noi-chan?"
Noi hefted herself up onto the table and slapped at the markings on his face, not noticing his winces. "These! The red patches, En says only good sorcerers get them but I don't believe him."
" Ouch , not all sorcerers get them and only some of them are red like your cousin and I, they can be any colour like blue or black. We were just born like this, like you and your white hair, Noi-chan."
She tugged on his long hair with a thoughtful look. "Your hair is pretty, Tenji, almost as pretty as mines!"
Tenjin suffered the torment quietly as a few strands came loose. "You're strong for your age, Noi-chan."
Noi grinned smugly. "I know, Tenji. Hey if my cousin is your boss then that makes me your boss too!" She let go of his hair and stood in front of him on the table with her hands on her hips. "Respect your elders!"
Tenjin stifled the laughter that threatened to break out at the little girl's behavior and he instead rearranged his expression into a subservient grovel. "Of course, Noi-sama. How old are you anyway?"
She nodded in self satisfaction and held up her fingers to signify her age with a moment of debate. "I'm this old!"
En walked back into the room and raised a brow at the sight of Noi on the table and Tenjin with several small hand shaped marks imprinted on his face much to the amusement of the rest of the small gang. "Noi, come."
She pouted as she had to leave her new friend and made to wave farewell at Tenjin but noticed the swiftly forming bruises. "Oops! Sorry Tenji!" Noi blasted a cloud of smoke at his surprised face and smirked as he poked and prodded at his healed cheeks.
"Wow, that's some magic, Noi-sama. Thank you." Tenjin bowed to her and hid a smile at her delighted giggle.
"Noi."
She huffed and slid off the table. "Okay okay I'm coming!
The other group members in the room were shocked at the disrespectful way she addressed En but she didn't care. Noi would speak to her cousin however she wanted.
He led her to a lonely room at the very back of the upper floor and gestured for her to go inside. There was a bed sat in the corner, a few bookshelves stuffed with dusty books and a wooden dolls house on a table. "The owners have no need of this room anymore. It's yours."
Noi made a beeline for the dollshouse and turned her back to En as she gently touched the carved dolls and rubbed their dresses between her fingers. "Are they on holiday?"
"No."
The answer confused her but she wasn't interested enough to ask why as her attention was captured by the posed figures of a happy family, a daughter framed by her parents. "Where is my mummy and daddy, En?" Her lower lip trembled and she didn't know why she felt so sad.
"They are fine, Noi, you're staying with me from now on."
Noi scrubbed her eyes and turned to him, looking up his gangly frame into his empty eyes. "What if I don't want to stay with you?"
En crouched down and placed his hands on her skinny shoulders. "Where would you go? You have no idea where you are and I'm the only one you have. If you walked out that door you would get snatched up within the hour, be grateful that I'm going to look after you."
She started shaking lightly and the tears bubbled over, tracing scalding hot lines down her face as En's image became blurred. "I want to go home."
He pulled her into his arms, wrapping them around her tightly, possessively. Noi didn't move and remained trembling. "We're family, Noi. This is your home now."
En didn't smell comforting like her mummy, he smelled cold and musty, the scent clung to her nostrils like the way his hands gripped at her.
He always got what he wanted.
" En," Noi whined, trudging her feet on the grass. "I'm tired."
She was accompanying the group on a mission; her first mission. She didn't know the details, only that she was here to heal anyone that got hurt. Noi's short legs couldn't keep up with the others and they had already travelled quite a distance by foot, unable to take a broom or carpet for fear of ruining the ambush.
"Quiet, Noi." En grunted and she could tell the heat and laborious trek was getting to him as well. His hair was drooping somewhat and his long forehead was covered in a light sheen of sweat and she doubted that under his mask fared any better.
Tenjin rubbed her back sympathetically and shushed her gently. "En-san, I can-"
"No." En sighed and scooped up Noi, holding her so she peaked over his shoulder at the astonished group. He wouldn't risk Noi being stolen away by any potential traitors that could have infiltrated his gang so he took it upon himself to carry his unhappy little cousin.
The gentle sway of En's strides slowly lulled Noi into a restless nap and she woke to the sight of one of the members of the Family's insides firmly on the outside of their body and she was forced to heal them despite her fear. The steaming ropes of intestines squirmed as the underling gurgled on the ground, Noi couldn’t take her eyes off the puddles of blood surrounding her and En. Her cousin was unfazed and he simply nudged her towards the man.
“Go ahead, Noi.” Her mouth felt dry and she tried to hack up smoke only to break into ragged coughs as En pushed her even closer. “Hurry up, he will die soon.”
Noi managed to exhale enough smoke for his injuries to roll back in time and his organs tucked themselves back inside his gut. He sighed in relief and clutched at Noi’s hand, covering it in blood. “Thank you, Noi-sama.”
The way Tenjin addressed Noi had stuck to the rest of the team as they would often run to fulfil her whimsical childlike fancies, a hardened group of sorcerers brought to their knees by a tiny girl.
Shuffling backwards, Noi remained kneeling on the ground, staring at the blood coating her wrist as the rest of the Family bustled around her. Tenjin crouched beside her and wiped off her hands with his shirt. “It gets easier, Noi-sama.” He murmured.
Noi didn’t want it to get easier. She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to be with En.
“Noi, there's another.” En called out from the other side of the clearing.
She rose unsteadily, refusing Tenjin’s outstretched hand and she forced herself towards En on wobbly legs. Noi would continue to heal, not for En, but for her tentative friends that she had made in her time stuck with the Family.
Quickly, surprisingly quickly, En had enough followers to establish a permanent base at that dingy little house that Noi was first brought to almost two years ago. They had expanded to take over the entire street and there was a squad of guards stationed outside Noi’s room at all times. A recent addition that she detested . So she snuck out.
She stashed a few of her dolls in her shirt sleeves and lowered herself down the drainpipe outside her window. The first time she had done this, Noi broke both of her legs but thankfully was able to stifle her screams long enough to heal and continue on her merry way. Now, Noi was an expert at dodging En’s men. Now that the Family had grown, there were goons that were solely loyal to En and they immediately ratted her out if she was doing something that he had forbade. The original members of the Family still indulged in her while not directly disobeying the boss.
Noi wormed her way into her usual hideout and instead found it occupied. A tall man had filled the room with strange idols and symbols carved into the floor. He was reading a book with a finger held thoughtfully to his mouth then he noticed his uninvited guest and turned with a surprised exclamation. “Oh! You must be Noi-chan~” The man had bright eyes and an even brighter smile, showing off his pearly whites as he beamed at her.
She paused halfway through the window she had been scaling, unsure. “...Will you tell En?”
The man winked and wagged his finger at her. “Sneaking out are we? Don’t worry, you’re just meeting the latest member of the family! Chota is pleased to meet you.” The stranger- no, Chota, bowed theatrically at her and she relaxed then slipped into the room fully. “What do you have there?” He had noticed her protective hold on her dolls.
“Nothing.” Noi mumbled, embarrassed that she still played with the silly things, her childhood had been marred by the violence that surrounded the En Family.
“They are very pretty.” Chota said kindly as she blushed and thankfully busied himself with sorting his bookshelves.
Noi was drawn to the weird books, one of them was somehow dripping liquid continuously despite the surrounding tomes being bone dry and another was smoking lightly. “What’s that?” She pointed at the collection but didn’t get too close.
“My magic requires a fair amount of study, it’s rare too. Just like yours.” He explained as he shuffled the tomes and scrolls around. Intrigued, Noi stepped over a chalk sigil and looked up expectantly at Chota. Laughing, he handed over a small book that Noi immediately snatched up and greedily looked over it while peaking at him every few seconds. “I can dispel other magic users' smoke.”
Pausing in her rapid scanning of the pages full of anatomical studies and cross-sections, Noi looked at Chota with disbelief. “Prove it.” She demanded and pocketed the tiny handbook.
Covering his mouth politely as he burst into giggles, Chota shook his head. “With what, Noi-chan? You’ll see at some point, I promise.”
Footsteps sounded from the hallway and knocking started at the door. “Chota? We need to talk.” Noi stiffened as she heard En and Chota quickly ushered her back to the window. “Just a moment, En-san!” His voice was breathy and excited.
Chota lifted her up and over the sill, waving goodbye as he held a finger to his lips “Our secret.”
After that first meeting, Noi would visit Chota often, too young to notice the building mania. His hands would shake and he would watch the door, waiting for someone to arrive as he gently ran his fingers over his mouth consideringly.
One day, Noi hopped through the window to find the room empty. Chota was gone, whisked away somewhere that she wasn’t allowed to go. No amount of demanding and sneaking would change En’s mind, she only ceased when he had spoken to her himself. Somehow more serious than usual, he had simply shook his head and Noi could see that her cousin was troubled so she agreed, surprising both herself and En.
She never saw Chota’s bright smile again.
Noi was only allowed to learn how to fight after a close call during a battle she was tagging along on. Normally, she stayed at the back of the fight, slipping in between combatants and running to heal the Family. Soon enough, there was someone that was faster than a little girl and with an arm thicker than her whole body wrapped around her neck, Noi was held hostage in front of the entire Family; in front of En.
Through her stunned silence, Noi distantly marvelled at how angry her cousin was, she had never seen him so irate. And then her own anger came swiftly after.
Growling, Noi bit down on her captor’s arm, ripping out a chunk and rolling to the side as he let go, yelling in rage and pain. A menacing cloud of smoke rushed over her head and the man collapsed into a pile of mushrooms.
En lifted her up and set her back onto her feet. “Noi, are you alright?!” His usually expressionless eyes were wild and his voice was urgent.
She nodded and wiped her mouth, he sighed quietly in relief, so quietly that she was certain only she could hear it. He let go and turned away, clipping his mask back into place.
“Tenjin, take Noi home.”
Quickly bustling her onto a broom and flying home, Tenjin was silent the entire time and Noi was thinking. The taste of iron wouldn’t leave her mouth and the experience had opened her eyes. She couldn’t stay on the sidelines anymore, despite being able to heal from possibly any injury, that wouldn’t matter if she was abducted (again) and ended up in a worse place than the relative ease of being with En.
Noi hated En, she hated him with every fibre of her being, she was sure of that but didn’t he keep her safe from the dangerous sorcerer’s that would harvest her smoke until she inevitably died? He fed her, gave her clothes to wear and somewhat educated her. She didn’t have it as bad as those sad captive magic users, right?
"Tenji," Noi refused to call him his full name and imposed her own nickname on him. "Teach me how to fight."
The broom dropped a few feet as he lost focus. "Noi-sama… I don't think we will be able to sneak our way around this one. We need En-san's permission, he'd kill me if I ever hurt you. N-not that I would but fighting is dangerous no matter the situation."
Noi didn't try to persuade him after that, she knew once En was mentioned that other members of the Family wouldn't bow to her demands; she would have to ask him herself.
Noi didn't have to wait very long, when the rest of the Family returned from the mission she waited patiently in the main hall as Tenjin whispered in En's ear.
She had the pleasure of watching his eyes widen in surprise and the narrow in irritation, a wrench in his works. He couldn't have predicted that Noi would grow the condemn the stifling way he treated her and didn't expect her to want to fight back and arm herself.
Spinning on his heel, En jerked his head towards the street and Noi followed him, Tenjin and the others trailed them uncertainly as they could feel the tension between the cousins.
They faced off. Quirking a brow, En crossed his arms and looked down on her. "So, you want to fight?" He kept his gaze trained on Noi but moved his head to the side to spit out a condensed cloud of smoke that rapidly changed form.
Beginning as an unassuming mushroom, it soon expanded and contorted, growing larger and larger until it towered over everyone present. Claw-tipped hands spread wide in challenge and its grotesque imitation of En's face bellowing gutturally. Since he could see his 'opponent' and didn't bother to channel his senses through a faceful of fungi and simply closed his eyes to focus through the gaze of the clone.
Noi steeled herself and widened her stance, like she had seen the others do before a fight, bringing her fists up awkwardly.
En chuffed and the mushroom advanced with a speed she didn't expect from its sheer mass.
Suddenly standing in front of her, she could only watch as it wound up a punch and struck her full in the chest, grinding most of her ribs into ivory dust. Noi sailed backwards and crashed into a brick wall, sliding down it, leaving a wide bloody swath and unable to scream from the pain. En didn't attack her with his full strength but neither was he curbing any of his blows, this was an attempt to beat her down and force her to abandon her hope of becoming a trained fighter.
Blood gushed from Noi's mouth and she hazily raised her head to bare her teeth savagely at En. She knew what her cousin was playing at; he wasn't going to win this time.
As quickly as it had come, the immobilising pain retreated and her body cracked back into place. She rose and spat a few teeth onto the ground, poking at the freshly grown ones with her tongue as she carefully advanced. Each of Noi's determined strides became more steady as she got closer to the mushroom clone.
However, she wasn't a fighter and En watched her approach until it struck out with its leg that smashed into the side of her head. Noi's vision blacked out and she blinked, waking up at the other side of the road. She turned her head, wincing as she heard the shattered parts of her skull slide together like broken pottery and sat up.
En was holding an arm out, halting Tenjin from going to her as he watched her smugly. That only gave her more cause to prove him wrong.
Defying him, Noi struggled to stand and she watched the clone lumber over to her, each step slapping wetly on the concrete. It stood above her, gloating with En's face and lording over her weak attempts to rise.
"Is that all, Noi?" En called out and Noi grit her teeth.
Her eyes misted red with rage and she found the strength to push herself off the ground and thrust herself fist first at the clone.
Caught off guard by Noi's sudden burst of energy, it left its defences wide open. She focused all her anger, the years had been wrought with it and she honed every spiteful thought held towards En into her arm and dashed forward.
The porous flesh burst around her strike and her punch sunk elbow deep within its chest as she panted like a wounded animal, dark liquid trailing down her arm. Noi leaned up, swaying on her feet and spat at its face. "I win. "
Both her and the mushroom collapsed at the same time and the street was silent until uproarious cheering startled Noi out of the brief unconsciousness she had fallen into.
"Great fight, Noi-sama!"
"Wow, you're a natural!"
"Good job!"
She drowned out the praise and smiled at the setting sun, the most elated she had been for as long as she could remember. Noi was pulled to her feet by firm hands and she looked up into the carefully placid expression on En's face. Her mouth fell open as he huffed a small laugh and headed for the base, calling out over his shoulder. "You can start training tomorrow."
Momentarily stunned by her cousin laughing, he had never done that before, Noi squealed as she was hauled up onto the Tenjin's shoulders and surrounded by proud Family members who were all gushing at her performance and overwhelming her with fighting tips. She ignored all that and looked at the retreating back of En.
Did he plan for this all along?
Older now, jaded and blunt, Noi would spend her days sparring with the Family and her nights healing their wounds then retiring to her little dollhouse room to collapse on the child sized bed with a weary sigh of satisfaction.
She had almost outgrown the mattress (lengthwise), despite her hard work with brawling, her body never changed to reflect the strength that had built up within her. It was almost sequestered away in some dusty part of Noi's body, hidden from sight. It was aggravating and she hoped it would change to reflect the violent energy brimming within her as she grew.
She could hold her own with the best of the Family's fighters, although she knew they would never fight her at full strength she still put them through their paces. Noi was perfect at using her size to her advantage, she weaved under fists quick as a whip and hit like a truck.
As she matured under the violent nurturing wings of the Family, it must have signalled to En that she was ready for something new. Noi's training lessons were cancelled for the day and she was told to wait in her room, unhappy and tense.
Trying to distract herself, Noi sat in front of her vanity, the latest gaudy item to appear in her room, courtesy of En's wallet and combed out her long hair. She debated which ribbon to tie it up with and then En walked in. Noi didn't turn around and blew a lock of hair out of her eyes as she looked at him through the mirror. "Why am I stuck inside?"
He didn't respond and stepped to the side to let two goons drag in a corpse, or at least what she thought was a corpse until it let out a rattling breath.
There was a thick mushroom that had breached their chest, most likely through the lungs as they struggled to breath and their face was turning blue from lack of oxygen. Noi's eyes widened, it's not like she hadn't seen her cousin's magic before but this was the first time she was expected to heal them. The fungal smoke made her skin crawl and she'd much rather deal with the gruesome knife wounds left behind by a Cross-Eyes than this.
"Noi, begin."
She dropped her comb, scaring herself with the ensuing clatter and tore her gaze from the twitching body on the floor. "What will you do with them?" Noi knew by now that En held a proclivity for torture and she wanted no part in it, this was the first time she'd been exposed to it so viscerally. Was this the aftermath or just the beginning? If she ever wanted to get information from an unwilling force she would simply force her knuckles past their teeth and bash them down their throat, she wouldn't do… whatever this was.
"Does it matter?" En said not even bothered by the hand clutching at his ankle in a plead for mercy, confirming Noi's suspicions that he wanted his victim hale and hearty for his little interrogation.
Noi's jaw worked, no words coming out until she managed to splutter. "Fuck you!"
Now En looked taken aback. "Where did you hear that from?"
"Tenji," She gloated. "He says you say it to people you don't like and I don't like you En!"
He sighed, shaking off the feeble grasp of the person on the floor and stepped over them to Noi. En looked down at her, shadows cast across his face and blacking out his eyes. "If you don't heal them, they will die. It would be your fault."
"You're the one that hurt them first!" Noi knew she wasn't to blame here but all it took was En's self assured words to plant the first seeds of doubt and that was enough. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“No,” He agreed. “You can leave them to die here or you can heal them. If you heal them and if they tell me what I need to know, they can walk out of here alive. But if you refuse to help then you are condemning them.”
Noi looked back behind En and met the pain filled stare of the tormented soul who was clawing at the slowly growing fungus that was cracking its way through their ribs. She pushed past En and scrunched her eyes shut to avoid seeing the macabre sight to blow smoke over them.
“T-t-thank you...” They rasped as they were dragged back out the room, drooping in shock as the pain dissipated.
En patted Noi on the shoulder, she shrugged out from under him. “Good.”
“I hate you.” She whispered as her hands shook.
“I know.”
When he closed the door behind himself, Noi cried out an inarticulate shout of rage and punched her mirror. The glass shattered and shredded her knuckles bloody, she shook out the pain and cradled her hand to her chest, watching the skin slide shut.
“Quite the temper you have there.”
Noi blinked and caught a flash of motion reflected in a shard of glass on the ground, a large shadowy mass. She looked up and gasped as she took in the sight of a Devil crouched in the corner of the ceiling like some freakish spider, their cloven hooves braced on the wooden beams and thick arms widely spread along the sides of the walls. Noi stumbled back and bumped into a solid wall of muscle and fur, she craned her neck and saw the same Devil grinning down at her, the corner now empty.
Saliva dripped onto Noi’s face and she grimaced, turning to face the Devil properly. “Are you here to see En? He just left.”
“No,” Their tongue wagged and their intense eyes burned with curiosity.
Remembering her manners and the fickle nature of Devils, Noi carefully bowed and gestured to her room. “I will try my best to entertain you, Devil.” She said, pushing away her trepidation to the back of her mind and steeling herself. En always told her to be respectful but to never grovel to a Devil, they would rip her apart at the first sign of weakness.
“The name’s Duston.” They strolled through the room, heavy hooves creaking on the floorboards and horns catching on the lightbulb. They sat on her bed, snapping it clean in two under their weight. Noi bit her lip and tried not to laugh at the tearful expression on Duston’s face, their features rearranged rapidly, stunningly quick as they bayed in rage and clicked their fingers. “Devil power!”
A huge bed formed underneath Duston, lifting them from the ground and propping them in a mountain of pillows as they lounged back, tears spilling from their eyes in satisfaction. Noi giggled and carefully sat next to Duston as they patted the space beside them. “Say, Noi, don’t you ever wanna leave this dump? Grow big and strong like your pal Duston?”
“How do you know my name?” She was intrigued and kicked her legs back and forth at the edge of the mattress, unable to touch the floor.
“Devil’s know everything yeah? Your cousin is the talk of Hell and Chidaruma loves the guy, but I’m interested in you , Noi.” Duston’s wings quivered and their jaw opened wide in an attempt at a friendly smile.
The more Duston spoke, the more convinced Noi became. They told her the conditions of the exam and the trials she would undertake, she didn’t care how long it took or how brutal they would be. She would become a Devil and get away from En.