dominion

2008

When Megumi is six, she meets the devil.

She is white of hair, in the dying light it is platinum and in the shadows it is gray. Her eyes are refracted, irriedescent hues of blue, divine and beguiling. She is pale, though a subtle glow illuminating her skin. Her lips are pink and full and predisposed towards smiling. Her teeth are white, and her canines are abnormally long. Her face is painfully beautiful and her scent is subtlety sweet, a lure, a thrall. 

Megumi thinks she's an angel.

The most beautiful facades are deceptive, filled with danger and peril. 

She smiles and asks, "Are you Zen'in Megumi?"

She shakes her head.

"Fushiguro then?"

She doesn't respond, but the beautiful stranger isn't deterred. She kneels down, descending to the earth, abandoning her celestial halo. 

"My name is Gojo Satoru. Have you ever felt different?"

Megumi stares.

"Have you ever seen creatures that others cannot or felt a strange power in your gut?" 

Megumi tenses, gaze becoming a fierce glare, the growls of dogs fill the air. The promise of the wild hunt.

Gojo Satoru grins wider, impish, and delighted. "I guess that answers that question. Now, onto important matters, I killed your father, so it-"

"I don't care." 

She doesn't; the man she mentions faintly registers, echoes of a baritone voice, a faint scent, rough hands, and blurry images. He left her long before she was able to remember him and grasp his importance to her.

All that is left is her and Tsumiki.

That is all that matters.

The angel sheds her human guise, cocking her head, an alien gesture, and she regards Megumi with eerie eyes. "You should. I killed your father; his death left you without protection. He sold you to the Zen'in as collateral. An omega from the main line? You're the prize, the ultimate prize."

Megumi understands the gist of what she says. Uncertainty and distrust cause Shiro and Kiro to claw out of the dark depths of shadow and take form. Their hazy forms gaining bone, tissue, muscle, skin then fur. 

The angel observes this, observes her, they are specimens under a microscope.

"Who are you? Why does this matter to you? What role do you play?"

"Asking the right questions, getting to the heart of the matter." She smiles, putting back on her mask, "You're very smart, aren't you, Megumi-chan?"

Smart? No, savvy, discerning, green eyes gimlet beacons.

"Answer the questions," She demands.

"The world is not kind; it is filled with evil," Her voice is soft and sinister, a threat, a promise. "Your family likes to walk in the shades of the darkest grey. Megumi," She lilts, "you have an omega sister, but they want you. Little old you, the vessel harboring their god. Who has more value? Who will they keep? Who will they discard?"

"Stop! I'm a kid," Megumi implores, Megumi demands, Megumi begs, frightened and intrigued. "Why are you telling me this?" 

"Oh no, Megumi-chan," She coos, "people like us don't have that luxury."

"People like us?" She questions, confused and frightened, "There are others-"

"Yes, there is, but not like us, Megumi-chan. There's only one Gojo Satoru," She points to herself, and gestures to her, "and one Fushiguro Megumi. There is no one like us."

She speaks with authority, her words absolute. Megumi cannot reconcile the comparison between them. She is ordinary... human, a child.

There is nothing special about her.

Megumi swallows, "What do you want?" 

"Want?" The angel sounds genuinely bewildered. Those eyes glow, and the guise of humanity slips. "I want many things, but right now, I want you to make a decision." 

"My family or... ?"

"Me," she answers sweetly.

"If I choose you..." Megumi begins tremulously; the ground is uneven, and the next step is uncertain. She will either sink or swim. Megumi throws in her lot with an unknown alpha. "Tsumiki comes with."

"Of course!" She claps her hands. "Leave it up to me. I'll take care of you both! You'll want for nothing! You can have anything."

"Anything?" Megumi asks, dubious, a litte curious and very cautious. 

"Anything," the angel repeats, bewitching and full of promise. "What do you want? Would you like cake? Candy? A pretty new dress?"

Megumi shakes her head, "Just teach me." 

"Well then, it appears I've chosen well. I'll teach you, my little acolyte," she pokes her nose. "We'll make an equal of you yet."

Megumi meets the devil when she is six. She places her hand in hers, and it closes around her like a manacle.