CHAPTER 2
After my little escape stunt from the semi-immortal redhead and getting caught like a rookie, we are... having tea. Well, I was having tea—she, on the other hand, was pouring herself a drink that could probably strip paint off a wall. Alcohol.
I've never liked the stuff. Don't like how it smells, don't like how it messes with your head. Makes people sloppy. And in a world this dangerous? Sloppy gets you killed.
"So, you're David," she said, sipping her drink like this was a casual chat and not a weird interrogation by a semi-immortal mage. "Who are you? Because all I know is your name... and that you can use magecraft."
But that wasn't magecraft. That was chakra—at least, it felt like chakra.
So maybe... the technique didn't just come with me. Maybe it Perhapsted—like it adapted. Instead of chakra, it's drawing power from mana now. Same engine, different fuel.
If that's truen I can probably use jutsu here just fine. Shadow clones, elemental release, all of it... running on the rules of this world.
"Ahhm… I'm David. I'm 19, from America—Indiana, to be exact. And I have no clue how I got here."
(Let's keep the whole 'getting isekai'd' thing to myself for now.)
"Okay then," she said, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Explain how there's nothing about you. No records, no presence—nothing."
I shrugged. "I dunno… sounds like a you problem."
She raised an eyebrow at that. "Let's say I believe you—believe that you are who you say you are. Then tell me this: how do you know magecraft?"
"…I plead the Fifth," I said, trying not to grin.
"You know I can rummage through your mind and find out, right?"
"Please don't."
"Then tell me."
"I don't know how I know magecraft," I said, trying to sound as honest as possible. "It's just… there. Like someone crammed it into my brain without asking first."
The redhead stared at me for what felt like forever. And not the cute, curious kind of stare—the 'I might kill you just to dissect your soul' kind of stare. For a solid moment, I genuinely feared for my life. Because yeah… this woman is scary like that.
"Fine," she said finally, leaning back. "Looks like I won't get anything about your past. But answer me this—why are your eyes pale?"
(Huh? Oooh… she means the Byakugan. But in this world, they probably call dōjutsu 'Mystic Eyes' or something.)
"They're Mystic Eyes," I said casually. "Help me see well."
"Mystic Eyes, huh? But I've never seen ones like those before," she said, eyes gleaming with interest. "Can I have one? Pretty please?"
"No. No. And hell no."
"I said no," I snapped, pulling back instinctively. "Ain't no way I'm letting someone touch my eyes."
"Tch. Killjoy," she muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, I'm the killjoy?" I raised an eyebrow. "You're the one asking for an eyeball like it's a party favor."
She shrugged with a sly smile. "Okay, fine. Since you do know where we are, and I'm not in the mood to have the Clock Tower sniffing around here, what with me being a sealed designation and all, you're staying put."
"…What?"
"You heard me," she said, getting up and stretching like this was just another Tuesday. "You'll be living here. You don't go outside unless it's with me or one of my familiars. And if you try to escape—well… let's just say, I'll find you. And you probably won't like how that ends."
"Co,ol cool," I said, dry as sand. "Love being a houseplant."
And that's how I ended up living in a dusty, abandoned mini-mansion with cracked windows, creaky floors, and enough cobwebs to start a spider revolution.
The first few nights? Sleep was a myth. I kept having the same two nightmares on repeat like a cursed playlist. One where I was being eaten—yeah, eaten—by the demon cat Touko keeps like some kind of eldritch house pet. The second? I will never see my family again. Because, you know, being in a whole different world tends to make family reunions tricky.
Come morning, I started cleaning. Dust was everywhere—like, biblical levels of dust. I figured if I was going to be stuck here, I might as well not breathe in ancient filth while I was at it.
Then came the training. Chakra, ninjutsu, the basics. Only, I wasn't exactly starting from scratch—I had the memories of the Third Hokage lodged in my head. Yeah, that guy. The Professor. The dude who had a PhD in every jutsu in the Hidden Leaf, even the ones he couldn't use like Wood Style. He still memorized the hand signs, the theory, the chakra flows… all of it.
Thanks to that, I knew what to look for. First step: sensing chakra—or mana, as it seems to be called here. Not too tough, since I'd already tapped into it subconsciously before.
Second step: chakra control. I tried the classic "stick a leaf—well, paper—on the forehead" trick. Nailed it on the first try. Turns out I didn't have much chakra right now—maybe the level of an Academy student—but the control? That part came easily.
Maybe I wasn't powerful yet… but I was building a foundation.
The third step was walking on walls.
Yeah. Walking on actual walls. Naruto made that look easy, but trust me—it's not.
First time I tried, I got two steps up before I faceplanted like a clown at a birthday party. After that? Crash. Fall. Repeat. The problem wasn't motivation—I had that. The problem was balance. Too much chakra and I'd blast off like a magic-powered cannonball. Too little and I'd just slide down like melted butter.
I kept trying until my chakra ran low—not dangerously low, but definitely in the red zone. So I decided to stop before I passed out and cracked my skull open. Again.
But chakra control wasn't the only part of being a ninja. There's also the body.
So I walked into an empty room, dropped to the floor, and tested my strength. Five push-ups. Five. That's it. Turns out weighing 230 pounds in a world built for lean, tree-jumping death ninjas isn't exactly ideal. I was obese by shinobi standards—and that wouldn't fly if I wanted to survive long enough to see a ramen bowl again.
So, new goal: convert this fat into muscle.
Because here's the thing—chakras have two sides. Yin and Yang.
Yang is physical energy from the body.
Yin is spiritual energy from the mind.
Put 'em together and boom—chakra.
So if I train my body and my mind, I increase my energy, which means more chakra, which means more power. It's like grinding stats in real life.
Even better? Chakra naturally enhances the body over time just by being there. Passive buffs, baby. But if I actively pour chakra into specific body parts, I can temporarily boost strength, speed, and reflexes—like flipping on a cheat code. That kind of control takes finesse, though. One mistake and I might snap my bones like twigs.
But hey—progress is progress.
And I don't plan on dying.
After resting for a bit, I figured it was time to start testing out some jutsu—the kind the Third Hokage knew like the back of his wrinkly hand.
The first one I tried was the Illusion Clone Jutsu. No problem at all. I nailed it on the first try. Not bragging, but yeah, that one's baby-level jutsu. More visual trick than real clone, but still—it looked cool, and that counts for something.
Next up: Substitution Jutsu. I swapped myself with a nearby chair and left it sitting there like a confused bystander. Another win.
And finally—Transformation Jutsu.
Now this one? I went all in. I transformed into none other than the red-haired menace herself: Touko.
While still wearing her face, I decided to cook. Yeah, she lives off takeout and black coffee like a stressed-out grad student. But me? I was taught how to cook since I was seven. So I made something decent—rice, beef stew, and some potato bites on the side. Nothing too fancy, just good comfort food.
I carried the tray into her room, still disguised as her. She didn't even look up at first—too focused on her alchemy-sorcery-demonic-spreadsheet-thing. But once I got close enough to set the tray down, she glanced up, did a double-take, and froze.
"Ohhh, you can change your form," she said, raising an eyebrow, clearly surprised—but not, like, impressed. Just… amused.
But then I noticed something weird. The demon cat that's always lurking around her? Didn't react at all. No hissing. No confusion. Just stared through me like I was made of fog.
Touko saw me eyeing the furball and smirked.
"The cat doesn't use normal senses," she said, already turning back to her work. "Illusions don't matter much when you see with magecraft and ancient instincts."
So yeah. Fool the eyes, maybe. Fool the nose or the soul-reading cat from hell? Not so much.
Still. Not a bad day.
The next day, Touko was heading out on a job, and—lucky me—I got to tag along.
Before we left, I hit the Transformation Jutsu again and turned myself into her. Now we looked like twins riding in a beat-up car. Well, almost twins—mine wasn't puffing on a cigarette like a noir detective in denial.
"So what's your job?" I asked, adjusting the sunglasses I stole from her nightstand.
"Oh, the usual," she said, blowing out smoke like a villain with too much plot armor. "Rich people with no magic history calling me to handle some supernatural mess. Ghosts, curses, haunted heirlooms... sometimes an investigation here and there."
"So... exorcist for hire?"
"Basically. It's a side gig, though. Funding my real project takes serious cash, and selling magic items doesn't cut it anymore."
"Or maybe," I said, deadpan, "you have a habit of buying crap you don't need."
I glanced at the backseat, where a ridiculously ornate cookie jar sat—gold trim, runes carved into the lid, and it hummed. Like, hummed.
"It bakes cookies if you put the ingredients in," I added.
Touko scoffed, not even trying to hide the smile. "Hey, I love cookies."
"It cost two million yen."
She didn't answer.
Yeah. That's what I thought.
"So, what job do you have for today?" I asked as we cruised through the city in her old, suspiciously quiet car.
"Apparition," Touko said casually, like we were talking about grocery shopping. "Something's possessing dead bodies at the morgue. I noticed it yesterday when I passed through."
I blinked. "You just... 'noticed' that? While passing by?"
She shrugged. "Aura felt off. I don't want anyone from the Clock Tower or the Church showing up to deal with it. They might find you, and I'm not ready to play that game yet."
"So you handle the supernatural problems they normally deal with just to avoid getting noticed by them?"
"Yep."
"How many... reanimated bodies are we talking about here?"
"About six."
"...That's not that bad," I said, immediately regretting it. "You got any weapons?"
"Nope," she said without missing a beat.
I just stared at her. "You know that's how people get killed in movies, right? And I'm Black—I'm dying first."
She chuckled. "Relax. I do have those brass knuckles in the glove compartment. They're imbued with a Sacrament. I, uh... kindly borrowed them from a priest who tried to capture me."
I reached over and popped the glove box open. Sure enough, there they were: black brass knuckles etched with glowing golden text. Latin, I think. Had that "holy but make it fashion" vibe.
"Is this Latin?" I asked, slipping them on. They fit perfectly. Too perfect.
"Yes. It says: Anima ejus, et ánimæ ómnium fidélium defunctórum, per misericórdiam Dei requiéscant in pace. It translates to 'May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.'"
"That's... oddly poetic."
"It's a small enchantment," she said. "Not much use against the living, but it's deadly to spirits and anything running on spiritual residue."
I flexed my fingers and grinned. "Cool. Guess I'll be punching ghosts today."
We got to the morgue... somehow. Don't ask about the car. Let's just say we won't be getting our deposit back.
Touko stepped out like nothing had happened, flicked her cigarette, and casually walked into the building. Once inside, she used some low-level mind control spell to get the workers to pack up and leave like it was just another Tuesday. Then, with a flick of her hand, she threw up a barrier around the place, tight and airtight. Nothing was getting out.
I dropped the transformation jutsu, letting my real form settle back in. Touko dug through her bag and pulled out a black onyx stone, already inscribed with faint etchings. She knelt and drew a sigil on the cold morgue floor, placing the stone right in the center.
A soft pulse of light blinked out from the stone, and suddenly the whole room dimmed. The ceiling shimmered and warped, replaced by a perfect illusion of the night sky, stars and all.
"What are you doing?" I asked, half-impressed, half-nervous.
"Spiritual beings are tied to the night," she said, her voice lower now, ritualistic. "It makes them stronger. This is artificial night—it lures them out. Once they show themselves... You kill them."
Right. No pressure.
I poured chakra into the brass knuckles and watched as a pale blue glow wrapped around my fists. It was weirdly beautiful. Ethereal. But I didn't have time to admire it, because the bodies were moving.
One corpse lurched to its feet with a grotesque crack of bones. But I was already there, boosted by my chakra-enhanced speed. I slammed a punch into its chest—five fast hits in a flash. The brass knuckles ignited with glowing seals, burning through the rotting flesh. The spirit wailed as it was forced out of the body, trying to escape.
But hitting a spirit? Way harder. They're fast. Floaty. Always just out of reach.
Instead of chasing the one that got away, I pivoted. The other five corpses were closing in on Touko, and I wasn't about to let that happen. She was calm—too calm—but I could tell she was prepping something. I didn't ask what.
I sprinted at the closest corpse, chakra flaring through my legs like coiled springs. I needed to take them out before the spirits could scatter.
The second corpse turned its head toward me, its neck snapping unnaturally as it locked eyes. I didn't give it time to do anything else. My chakra surged, fists flying. Each hit didn't just land—it burned, the enchantment in the knuckles flaring with every impact.
The body crumbled.
But the spirit that came out shot upward, screeching like static and smoke. I couldn't catch it—not without air mobility. Definitely gotta work on that.
I twisted around. Another body was almost on Touko, its fingers elongated and twitching like it didn't even remember what being human was like. I moved.
Fast.
I caught it with a side kick strong enough to crack ribs, then followed up with a clean hook to the temple. The brass lit up again, sealing the deal. Spirit gone.
That left three more.
One was climbing the wall like some messed-up spider. The other two had grouped up and were moving together, probably drawn to Touko's aura. She was still chanting—some kind of incantation that had the air thick with static, like a storm was winding up but hadn't hit yet.
I figured if I could keep these three busy, she'd finish whatever spell she was cooking.
Wall-crawler first.
I focused chakra into my feet—tree walking style—then bolted up the wall like it was flat ground. Met it mid-way, ducked its swipe, and drove my knuckles into its chest. The spirit inside didn't even get a chance to leave before the body dropped like a ragdoll.
The last two turned on me now. Good. I was in the zone.
I hit the ground hard, cracking the tile, and charged. They didn't try to dodge. They weren't smart enough. But the moment I got close, one opened its mouth and screamed—no sound came out, but my ears rang, and my chakra flow flickered for a second.
I fought through it, swinging wide and hitting both with a sweeping strike. They staggered, and that was enough for Touko to finally move.
She stepped forward and clapped once.
A ripple of dark blue light exploded out from the barrier, and the spirits were yanked from their bodies like smoke being vacuumed into the sky. Gone.
I caught my breath, knuckles still glowing faintly. My arms were sore. My legs burned. But I was standing.
Touko lit another cigarette like she hadn't just summoned a fake night and sealed a handful of ghosts.
"Not bad," she said, taking a long drag. "You hit like a pissed-off shrine maiden."
I shrugged. "They were already dead. I just reminded them."
"So, where did they go?" I asked, still catching my breath.
Touko casually bent down and picked up the onyx rock like she hadn't just bottled up a room full of angry ghosts. "In here. Apparitions can be useful for certain... projects. So I'm keeping them. For now."
I blinked. "So you're hoarding haunted souls now?"
She looked me dead in the eye. "You hungry?"
"Yeah. Didn't eat this morning."
"Good. I know a place nearby. Best dumplings you've ever had."
"Wait—is that the same place you used to hit up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner before I showed up?"
She didn't say anything. Just walked off like she didn't hear me.
I jogged after her. "Hey. Answer me. You know that's bat behavior, right? Like straight-up gremlin hours."
Still nothing. She popped the car door open, got in, and lit up another cigarette.
I opened my door. "You know I'm right."
She exhaled smoke and muttered, "They give me extra sauce packets."
"Oh, so now we're doing ghost hunts and food loyalty programs?"
She didn't smile, but I saw the corner of her lip twitch. Just a little.